SHIELD High
by iColor With Crayons
Summary: Avengers AU: S.H.I.E.L.D. High is a place where those with special talents can hone their skills and make friends along the way. The Avengers are included in this student body and are frequently getting into trouble. Let's see if they can stay out of trouble just long enough to walk across the stage at the end of the year!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

S.H.I.E.L.D. High School was nothing like the other high schools in the country. It was the most sought-after education in New York, possibly in the country. The dean, Nick Fury, was notorious for rejecting the most qualified students and accepting the most bizarre applicants. Parents across the country had protested the dean's decisions to no avail. S.H.I.E.L.D. High School was more difficult to get into than ivy league colleges.

That was what Nick Fury allowed people to think, anyway. The truth was: S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't difficult to get into at all, so long as the applicants had the required skill set. The high school was for exceptionally gifted students. Students that were able to bend forces of nature to their will, students that were able to spar with a man twice their size without breaking a sweat; students that would graduate and ultimately save the world from descending into chaos.

The school placed these special students on certain career paths based off of their individual skillsets. Their schedules reflected these specific career paths. Instead of worrying about taking ridiculous extracurriculars to fill their schedules, only the most crucial courses were supplied. In order to keep their funding, all students were required to complete the basic courses: math, science, english, and history, but these courses often lasted a semester at the longest. The courses were also offered over the summer for particularly motivated students. However, the emphasis was placed on relevant subjects, such as sparring, leadership and technology courses.

In addition to offering the mandatory courses that other high schools required, S.H.I.E.L.D. also pushed their students towards extracurriculars. The S.H.I.E.L.D. football team was internationally ranked, the robotics club created blueprints that were often purchased by NASA, and the members of the student government were asked to attend urgent UN meetings. It was not difficult to see why parents were so desperate to enroll their students in the school.

"Move it, Barton! If you slow down now, your mile time will be bad enough to justify kicking you off the team!" Steve Rogers hollered, folding his arms across his chest as he watched the rest of the football team run around the football field.

Steve was the captain of the team. It hadn't been very difficult to secure the position; Steve had always been exceptionally athletic and Mr. Fury had always pushed him towards leadership positions. He had been drawn to the military coursework almost immediately after being enrolled in the school. By the end of his first semester at S.H.I.E.L.D., it had been determined that he would continue on the military path. Mr. Fury had confidence that this particular field of work would take Steve very far.

The desultory teammate in question, Clint Barton, offered Steve his middle finger as a response.

Both Steve and Clint knew that Steve would never dream of kicking him off of the football team. While Clint did not take the game quite as seriously as some of his teammates did, he was a damn good football player.

Like Steve, Clint had been blessed with athletic prowess. He was not nearly as strong as Steve - no one was, really - but he was brilliant at determining pressure points and weaknesses in opponents, easily taking down any players that crossed his path.

Clint had opted for a slightly different academic route than Steve. He was training to become an international spy. His summery demeanor was a genius aspect of this career path, as the most secretive of strangers felt compelled to open up to the friendly boy. Despite his best efforts, even Steve couldn't help liking Clint just a little bit more than the rest of the diligent members of the team.

"That's strike two. If you're not careful, I'll have to show you what leadership style they're teaching in my leadership history course. We're learning about Stalin right now. Want to take that risk?" Steve commented, biting back a smirk as Clint picked up the pace slightly.

"Hey, Rogers, I have fresh meat for you to torment whenever you're done with Barton." A smooth voice sounded from behind the captain.

"Nat, hey. Uh, is this him?" Steve questioned, turning around to face Natasha Romanoff and the tall, muscular boy she had brought along with her.

Natasha was one of the most influential students at S.H.I.E.L.D. High, there was no way around it. Mr. Fury favorited her to an almost improper degree, while the rest of the student body cowered in her imposing presence.

Like Clint, she was studying to become an international spy. She lacked the same bright demeanor that the boy possessed. In its place was a terrifyingly blank face as well as nerves of steel. Steve had personally watched her spar with some of the bulkiest, strongest boys in the school; she always won. She had even kicked Clint around the ring a number of times.

Despite the widespread fear of the redhead, Steve had taken an immediate liking to the girl. She had saved him from walking into the girls' locker room on the first day of their freshman year. Ever since, they had looked out for each other throughout the chaos that was high school. Now, in their senior year, they no longer needed each other's protection, but instead, sought out each other's company as a way of surviving the tedious activities that are often forced in high school.

Somewhere throughout the ever-lasting years of high school, Steve had developed some sort of feelings for Natasha. She was comely, there was no denying that. All of the boys at S.H.I.E.L.D. had thought about asking her on a date once or twice throughout their high school careers. Steve was the only one who had thought about her beyond that. Despite this, he knew better than to expect anything but friendship from his redheaded friend. She was a loner. She disliked depending on anyone else.

"Yep," Natasha answered, sparing the imposing blond figure another glance, "this is Thor. He just moved here from Asgard. According to Fury, it's an entirely different realm. Go easy on him. He might be strong, but when it comes to football, he probably knows less about it than I do."

Steve looked the boy over quickly. He did look strong. His muscles were bulging out of the T-shirt he was wearing. There was undoubtedly a spot on the defensive line for someone with Thor's stature.

"All right, great. Thor, you can start running with the other guys. Tell them to hurry it up if they start to move too slow." Steve allowed, jerking his head in the direction of the rest of the team, indicating that Thor should join the assemblage of running boys.

Thor stared back at the captain incredulously for a moment before murmuring something under his breath and jogging over to the rest of the team. After watching Thor's departure, Steve turned to face Natasha with an amused stare.

"Have you sparred with him, yet? If he's from another realm, he might be able to take you down." He chuckled, glancing at Thor - who had already taken lead of the pack - before returning his focused stare to Natasha.

The spy in-training rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Fury says that he and his brother got sent here after they threw a temper tantrum over ascending the throne in Asgard. He might be strong, but he's not smart about his strength. I could have him on the ground in ten minutes, tops." She replied, a smile playing on her lips.

Steve returned the smile easily. "Are you sure that you don't want to join the football team? I doubt Mr. Fury would have any strong objections. You're better than most of the guys out there. You could always take Barton's spot." He offered teasingly.

Natasha laughed, shaking her head. Her eyes focused on Steve's for a moment before she turned to observe the gaggle of boys running. Some of them had slowed down considerably in the hopes that Steve was distracted. Clint was jogging at an abnormally slow pace.

"Move your ass, Barton! I'm going to tell Fury to kick you out of the program for being so lazy on the field!" She called.

Natasha grinned as Clint scowled in her direction, shaking his head before picking up the pace. It was easy for everyone to see the strange relationship between Clint and Natasha. Everyone was used to Clint's flirting, that was commonplace. The only thing unusual thing was that Natasha flirted back.

Steve had observed this, of course, but could not bring himself to ask either Natasha or Clint about it. It was their business, he reminded himself. Besides that, he could not think of a single positive thing to say to either of them if they confirmed that they were interested in dating one another. Prior to his mother's death, which had promptly followed his his father's death, she had reminded him that if he didn't have anything nice to say, he might as well keep his mouth shut.

"Yeah, yeah, that's big talk coming from you, Tasha! Why don't you get back to the gym? I think I can see your muscles turning to fat as we speak!" Clint shouted in a breathless voice, waggling his eyebrows at the glowering redhead.

Natasha rolled her eyes as she returned her focus to Steve.

"As much as I hate to admit it it, he's probably right. I was supposed to get back to the gym right after dropping Thor and his brother off at the clubs Fury chose for them. Do you want to go to dinner after you're done practice? I think the dining hall is serving apple pie tonight. I know how you feel about apple pie." She remarked, smiling as she started walking backwards in the direction of the school.

Steve nodded, unable to suppress a grin.

"Yeah, I'll see you there."

Natasha smiled once more before returning to the school, quietly laughing at the distant sounds of Steve yelling at the lazy football players.

* * *

"How could you not understand the concept of the speed of light? It's not difficult!" Tony Stark demanded in exasperation, gesturing towards the whiteboard containing scribbles and pictures that did not appear to make a whole lot of sense.

Tony was the genius of S.H.I.E.L.D. high, there was no denying it. His classmates resented him in classes, as he would always have an answer ready before the professors had finished the question. He usually added a snarky comment along with his answer, provoking the professor to yell and assign even more homework. As much as the student body loathed him, everyone had a begrudging sense of respect for the brilliant young man. He was the captain of the robotics team, as well as the co-chair of the science club. Mr. Fury had placed him in the most rigorous science classes the school had to offer, often times importing foreign scientists to further challenge the boy. Evidently, Mr. Fury had high hopes for Tony's scientific career.

"Lighten up, Stark. She's not even studying science. She's here for public relations. I think she just followed Jane in." Bruce Banner sighed, rubbing his temples in an effort to remain calm despite Tony's persistent nagging.

Like Tony, Bruce was immersed in the school's science program. Mr. Fury had originally objected to this decision, as Bruce contained a far more powerful weapon than his intellect, but Bruce had insisted that he would either study science at S.H.I.E.L.D. high, or he would transfer elsewhere.

The more powerful weapon in Bruce's possession were his severe anger issues. These issues went far beyond anything that had ever been seen on the face of the Earth before. Instead of yelling and maybe picking a fight or two, Bruce would turn into a hulking green monster. The monster was uncontrollable, despite Bruce's best efforts. His rage was barely any easier to control. Mr. Fury saw this 'power' as a possibility. Bruce saw it as a condemnation.

So, instead of embracing the idea of becoming a military weapon or a last-resort in the next world war, Bruce decided that he would study gamma radiation for the rest of his life. He reasoned that if he studied it long enough, he might be able to reverse whatever it was that had gone wrong inside of him.

Tony glowered at the girl in question: Darcy Lewis.

Bruce was right; Darcy was studying public relations. If she was being honest with herself, she would have to say that she hardly belonged at S.H.I.E.L.D. high. She suspected that everyone at the school, including Mr. Fury, felt similarly. She had applied along with her best friend, Jane Foster, in the hopes that she would be one of those inexplicable acceptance letters. After her interview, Mr. Fury had determined that while Darcy did not have any special qualities, but she was charismatic enough to be somewhat useful, should the council ever decide to make a political movement.

"Why would you follow someone into a club based on something you don't know anything about? Why don't you run off and play with the student government association or something?" Tony muttered, sparing Darcy one last disgusted look before refocusing on Bruce, who had been making a statement about a documentary on light he had seen the night before.

Darcy raised an eyebrow at Tony.

"Why don't you jump off of a cliff?" She countered.

Tony turned to smirk at Darcy. "I think that Fury would send a helicopter to catch me before I hit the ground. I'm the most valuable asset he's got at this school."

Darcy rolled her eyes.

"I don't have time for your bullshit right now, Tony. I have to show one of the new kids around. I'm surprised you didn't want to get your hands on him, Jane. He's from a totally different realm. He probably knows a lot about the stars or whatever it is that you study." She said, sliding off of the lab bench she was sitting on and snatching her backpack off of the ground.

"Really? You think so?" Jane Foster inquired eagerly.

Like Tony and Bruce, Jane was studying science. Her focus was primarily astrophysics. In addition to being a member of the science club, she was also forced to subject herself to the robotics club, where she had to endure an even more insufferable version of Tony. Unlike Darcy, Jane did not argue with Tony very much. She didn't argue with anyone, for that matter. She was too busy to worry about social conflicts or creating drama. Instead, she focused her eager, wide-eyed attitude on science.

She and Darcy were inseparable. They had been for years. They often crashed each others' club meetings, they always sat together at every meal in the dining hall, and they had opted to become roommates despite both of the guidance counselors' objections.

"I guess. I don't really know. It's worth a try, isn't it? C'mon, what do you have to lose? A room full of guys talking about things moving a fraction of a second faster than each other?" Darcy replied, standing in the doorway, staring at her best friend hopefully.

Darcy _really_ didn't want to be alone with the new guy. Mr. Fury had asked her to introduce him to all of the student council members, as he would likely join the student government himself. Apparently his name was Loki. The name was strange and off putting enough as it was.

Jane chewed her thumb, looking between Tony and Bruce, the co-chairmen of the science club before turning and smiling at Darcy.

"I'll see you guys in class. Text me if you see any more documentaries, Bruce. I really wish I could have seen the one last night." Jane said, sparing the two boys a small smile before grabbing her bag and skipping over to Darcy's side.

Tony rolled his eyes as he turned his focus back to the whiteboard.

"Women." He muttered under his breath, shaking his head.

* * *

"Hey, you're the new guy, aren't you?" Darcy questioned, approaching a tall, lean figure standing against the lockers in a deserted hallway.

The boy stared down at Jane and Darcy with an unimpressed glare. His green eyes searched their faces, as though he were reading them like an open book. When he didn't find anything of interest, he nodded his head, glancing around the empty hallway.

"I am Loki of Asgard. Am I to assume that you are Darcy Lewis?" He questioned, his eyes boring into Jane's.

"Oh, no, that's me. Hi, I'm Darcy. Mr. Fury is making me introduce you to everyone in the student government. Don't mind Jane, she's just studying science. I guess you're going to study public relations? That's what I'm doing. Apparently I'm going to be a political leader. Who knew?" Darcy rambled, immediately beginning to walk down the hallway, not bothering to check if Loki was following her or not.

The tall boy sauntered behind her, observing every scene that presented itself with a great deal of curiosity. He didn't seem to miss a thing. Neither Darcy nor Jane took a particular interest in Loki's behavior. They were too well-adjusted to being surrounded by geniuses and mental cases. Loki was hardly the strangest creature they had encountered throughout their years at S.H.I.E.L.D. High.

"What will you rule?" Loki asked evenly, glancing down at Darcy inquisitively.

"Oh, no, I'm not going to be like a queen or anything. Just someone who pretends that they're doing the right thing for the majority of the population while actually serving their own private agenda. I'm pretty excited about it." She replied, nodding her head and smiling satirically.

Loki's eyebrows furrowed. "Is that not the proper definition of a ruler?"

Darcy laughed, shaking her head. "You're funny, new guy. You know what? I'm going to do you a favor. Technically Mr. Fury said to introduce you to the entire student government, but I'm going to skip that mess. You don't want to meet twenty different people in one afternoon, do you?"

Loki arched an eyebrow at her. "How dull are these people?"

"Every time they open their mouth to say something, I die a little bit inside." Darcy replied.

"Ah," Loki drawled, nodding, "then I would appreciate avoiding them at all costs."

Darcy smiled. "That's what I thought. I'll just introduce you to Pepper. She's really the only one that you need to know. She's the president of the student body. You'll love her. Everybody does."

"She is the primary ruler of the school?" Loki clarified, his eyes searching the hallway for any signs of the subject of their conversation.

Darcy shrugged. "For all intents and purposes, I guess so. She's probably sitting in her office planning the next decade or so. Here we are. Jane, did you want to come with us? I don't know if this is going to turn into a meeting or not, but if it does, it's going to be pretty boring."

"I don't mind. I sat through the budgeting meeting last week. I don't think it could get worse than that." The smaller girl replied, sparing Loki a small smile before following Darcy into Pepper Potts' office.

Pepper, like Darcy, knew that she had gotten into S.H.I.E.L.D. High on technicalities. She was organized and she was a few notches above average in the IQ department. That was about it. She wasn't even as charismatic as Darcy; she was much too self-contained to blurt out her opinion in a room full of strangers. The only reason that she had gotten into the school was Tony Stark.

Tony was royalty at the school. Mr. Fury scolded and reprimanded him half-heartedly from time to time, but for the most part, the faculty at S.H.I.E.L.D. bent to Tony's will. The intelligence and charisma that the boy possessed were far too valuable to lose to a competing school. So, when Tony had insisted that Pepper would be a beneficial addition to the school, Mr. Fury had reluctantly sent out the necessary paperwork.

The dean, as well as the majority of the student body, had been curious about Tony's intentions when he demanded Pepper's acceptance. They quickly received their explanation when they saw Pepper following Tony around the school, essentially serving as the boy's secretary. She would schedule his extracurricular activities, she would ensure that Tony did not miss important meetings with established members of the scientific community, and perhaps most importantly, she came up with elaborate schemes to keep Tony's handful of girlfriends from finding out about one another.

Everyone had suspicions that Pepper had developed a sort of crush on Tony. It was the only explanation for her ability to continuously deal with his sempiternal narcissism. Pepper objected to these accusations, insisting to her closest friends that she was desperately in love with Steve Rogers as opposed to her tall, dark, and snarky sort-of employer. The large majority of the female student body followed the muscular football player around with hopeful eyes. It was a widely accepted crush for girls to have. Ironically, Tony was the only one who believed that Pepper was really seeking out a relationship with the star athlete.

"Hey Pepper," Darcy greeted her friend warmly as the group entered her office, "Mr. Fury told me to introduce you to one of the new kids. This is Loki. He's going to be studying public relations." She gestured to the lanky figure by her side.

Pepper looked up from the papers scattered about her desk, allowing Loki a friendly, slightly flustered, smile.

"Loki? That's a different name. Hi, I'm Pepper Potts. I'm the student body president for the time being. Have you gotten your class schedule, yet?" She inquired politely, standing up and outstretching a small hand in Loki's direction.

He stared at it pointedly before shaking it. "I have not. The dean has scheduled aptitude testing tomorrow morning for my brother and I. He will undoubtedly enroll in courses strictly based off of fighting and other physical exertions."

"Oh, I haven't met your brother yet. Do you know if he's thinking about joining the football team? He should; we always win the National Championships. I'm sure Steve would be more than happy to have another member on the team. Steve is the captain of the football team, you know." Pepper chirped, casting a glance in Darcy and Jane's direction to gauge whether or not they had noticed her subtle mention of Steve.

Darcy rolled her eyes, but didn't say a word.

Loki studied Pepper for a moment, then shook his head.

"No," he answered slowly, "I can not say that I have any idea as to my brother's intentions. I am sure they are absurdly noble. As much as I dislike shifting the subject matter from my glorious brother, I feel obliged to inquire as to the clubs that I might be welcomed into."

Pepper raised an eyebrow at the boy before her eyes widened.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude! Um, well, we're actually having elections for the vice president of the student body soon. Our last vice president was, um, just a little too friendly with one of their teachers. Anyway, it would be a great way to meet people while you're campaigning. Even if you don't win the elections, you could always be a senator. I'm sure you would be a great addition to the team." She explained pleasantly, digging through her desk in order to find Loki the required paperwork.

The boy accepted the stack of papers with an unimpressed gaze.

"Great, thanks Pepper. Um, Loki, I should probably get you back to Mr. Fury, now. He wanted to talk to you and your brother about the parameters of the test tomorrow. Pepper, try not to stay here until the janitor's threaten to lock you in the school. Again. Tony's schedule really isn't that important." Darcy commented, sparing her friend a knowing look before leading Loki and Jane out of the small office.

"Who is Tony?" Loki questioned as they walked down the hallway, his green eyes finally displaying a small measure of curiosity.

Jane and Darcy exchanged eye rolls.

"Tony practically runs the school. He's a total dick, but none of the teachers are allowed to punish him. Mr. Fury thinks that he's going to throw a temper tantrum and transfer if they do. If you have any classes with him, you'll hear him talk about it." Darcy explained.

"_Problem, Foster? Take it up with Fury_," Jane imitated Tony's low, patronizing tone, "_he'll tell you to come back with an apology. You might be smart, but I'm the biggest asset S.H.I.E.L.D.'s got_."

Both girls giggled, shaking their heads.

"More like the biggest ass, if you ask me." Darcy added, casting a grin in Loki's direction.

The lanky boy watched both of the girls with an intent stare. He didn't even crack a smile.

"What makes him so valuable?" He asked, his sharp green eyes flicking from Darcy to Jane and back repeatedly, silently demanding that his question be answered immediately.

Darcy glanced at Jane for an answer; she knew that Tony was smart, and she had heard from teachers that he was supposedly charismatic, but she couldn't explain to anyone just what made Tony so smart. He built robots. He answered all of the questions in every class, when he bothered to show up. That was the extent of her knowledge.

Jane sighed. "He's a genius. Not just your run-of-the-mill, create-a-few-formulas genius, either. He's the real thing. He's already made a bunch of advances in calculus, whether all of his ideas are credited to him on paper or not, he understands thermonuclear astrophysics as well as the most prominent experts in the field, he's probably on the brink of discovering a new element, and on top of all of that, he's surprisingly good at sweet-talking people. When he wants something out of them, that is. You should see how many girlfriends he has. It's unbelievable."

Loki nodded as they approached Mr. Fury's office.

"It sounds as though he could singlehandedly rule your realm." The boy mused, speaking more to himself than the girls standing on either side of him.

Darcy glanced at him curiously, a question forming in her mind. The question was immediately erased as they reached the door to Mr. Fury's office. Next to the door, Steve Rogers was speaking to a tall, muscular boy with long blond hair.

"Hot damn." Darcy breathed, raising her eyebrows as she stared at the boy she didn't recognize.

"Who is that?" Jane whispered, her pupils dilating excessively.

Loki observed the awe-struck girls before rolling his eyes.

"Thor. I see you have met a human with a similar stature. How predictable." The lanky boy remarked, sauntering over to his brother's side, ignoring Darcy and Jane, who were still staring at his muscular brother.

"Oh, hey, you must be Thor's brother. Loki, was it?" Steve cast an uncertain gaze at Thor, who nodded. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Steve Rogers. Thor says that you're really good at creating battle strategies. We don't exactly stab the other team or anything, but you're more than welcome to help me out with a few plays if you're interested."

Loki inspected Steve lazily, as though he had never seen anything quite so boring before.

"Brother, it would be a most enjoyable activity. You could designate the strategy, which I would perform in order to win. You must meet the rest of the team. They are very welcoming." Thor agreed, placing a heavy hand on Loki's thin shoulder.

The smaller boy's eyes narrowed.

"I will consider it." He allowed.

"Great. I'll catch up with you tomorrow at lunch. You'll probably be done your tests by then. Later, guys." Steve said, nodding towards Jane and Darcy briefly before grinning at the pair of brothers and taking his leave.

In the absence of the excitable Steve Rogers, Thor cast a curious glance in Jane and Darcy's direction before staring down at Loki, waiting for an introduction. Loki immediately recognized his brother's gaze and rolled his eyes once more.

"Very well, brother." He sighed, as though introducing his brother to his new acquaintances was a sign of defeat, "this is Darcy Lewis, a particularly unimpressive girl who speaks of studying public relations in the hopes of becoming some sort of ruler. Conversely, this is Jane Foster, who appears to be much more interested in the sciences; something you yourself hold little regard for."

A deep chuckle rippled from Thor's throat as he clapped Loki on the back a little too roughly.

"Ah, that is just Loki's playful nature! He often makes jests that could be confused with insults. You must pay particular attention to him in order to understand. Darcy Lewis, Jane Foster, it is an honor to meet you both." He boomed, bowing his head slightly before grinning at Loki.

The smaller boy shook his head. "I assure you, brother, you are the very last person in existence to fully understand anything."

Darcy bit back a laugh, Jane stared at Loki with wide eyes, as though she expected Thor to be hurt by his brother's biting comment, but Thor simply laughed harder.

The loud volume of Thor's laughter immediately drew the attention of everyone even remotely in the area. Mr. Fury's office door swung open, producing the imposing figure, who still managed to glare at every single student with the aid of only one functioning eye.

"Boys." He acknowledged gruffly. "Come with me. Miss Lewis, Miss Foster; I believe you girls both have places that you should be."

Both of the girls mustered polite smiles.

"Yes, Mr. Fury." They chimed, quickly excusing themselves to join the masses in the dining hall.

As Loki followed Mr. Fury into his office, already discussing the outline of the test, Thor couldn't resist watching the two girls walk away, falling into a comfortable conversation as they did so.

There had been something pleasant about the way Jane Foster looked at him.

Perhaps he would enjoy S.H.I.E.L.D. High more than he had originally thought possible.

* * *

"Wow, Rogers. Did you leave any pie for the rest of the school?" Natasha teased as she slid into the seat next to Steve in their usual table.

The football player smirked as best he could with his mouth full.

After forcefully swallowing the food that had been crowded his mouth, he chuckled.

"Wilson ate all of my food again. I've got to eat enough at dinner to make sure I don't starve tonight." He explained, stabbing at his overcooked chicken with his fork, his crystal eyes twinkling in amusement as he watched Natasha do the same.

The aforementioned roommate joined Steve and Natasha just seconds later, his tray piled just as high as Steve's.

"So _that's_ where all of the pie went. Should've known that you would beat the rest of the team here on apple pie day, Steve." He sighed, shaking his head as he slid into a seat across from his grinning roommate.

"Wouldn't have happened if you didn't eat all of the food in our fridge, Sam." Steve countered easily, protecting the insane amount of pie on his tray from his roommate's wandering fork.

"You can't blame him for eating all of the food," Natasha objected, smirking at Sam, "he needs to bulk up a little bit. Barton was tossing him around like he weighed next to nothing in Tech Fighting today. It was pretty embarrassing."

Sam pretended to scowl as Steve laughed.

"Funny, Romanoff. I'm going to remember that when we work together next week."

The redhead grinned. "I hope you do."

"Hope he does what? Drop out of Tech Fighting? Yeah, I sort of do, too." Clint commented as he approached the table, affording his friends a teasing grin before sitting on the other side of Natasha.

"I don't know if you should be trash-talking Sam, buddy. He did have a better run time than you at practice today." Steve reminded Clint with a chuckle.

Clint waved off Steve's comment.

"This is between me and Wilson. Why don't you worry about finishing your dinner, Rogers?" The shorter boy responded, eying the ridiculous amount of food on Steve's tray with an amused grin.

"Don't forget that I could kick you off the team for a number of things. I doubt Mr. Fury would say anything if I did." Steve muttered, a good-natured smile playing across his face as he returned his attention to his food.

"Hey Captain, if you're not too busy hoovering your food, you might want to look behind you. Pepper Potts has been staring you down since she got here." Sam commented after a few minutes of silence.

Steve arched an eyebrow at his grinning roommate.

"Pepper? You mean Stark's girlfriend? Why would she be looking at me?" He asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand before casting a curious glance over his broad shoulder.

Sure enough, the girl in question blushed and immediately looked away, pretending to pay attention to Tony's ramblings.

"You know that Tony isn't actually dating her. He might be dating the rest of the girls in this school, but not Potts. She just follows him around because he got her into this school. I heard she has a major thing for you. Why don't you go talk to her? Take her to a movie tonight; I think some of the guys are going anyway. Maybe you could actually get some action, for once. It might make you less of a dick during practice." Clint suggested, waggling his eyebrows.

Steve shook his head. "I'm glad you respect my leadership. Anyway, I can't take anyone to the movies tonight. I'm hanging out with Bucky."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Tell me that he isn't coming here."

"No," Steve chuckled, knowing that Natasha disliked the way Bucky was constantly flirting with her, "I'm going over to his place."

"Be careful, bud. We wouldn't want our precious Captain to be taken advantage of by his tall, dark, handsome friend." Clint teased, chuckling as Steve attempted to reach around Natasha to land a punch on his shoulder.

"Are you ever going to quit it with those jokes? I don't have a girlfriend because I don't want one. That has nothing to do with Bucky. Who, by the way, is dating a number of girls." Steve responded irritably.

"Sounds like jealousy to me."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Can it, Barton. I think I'm going to take off early. Nat, do you think you'll be okay with these two?"

Natasha's green eyes flicked from the boys sitting at the table to Steve, who was beginning to stand up.

"Actually, I think I'm done eating, too. Mind if I take the bus with you? I've been meaning to pick up a few things from town, anyway." She replied, setting down her utensils and springing out of her seat.

"Not at all. Gentlemen." Steve nodded his goodbye to Clint and Sam before walking with Natasha towards the exit, trying to contain the grin that was threatening to overtake his entire face.

* * *

"What were you staring at Rogers for? Don't tell me that you still think he's something special. C'mon, Potts, he's an idiot! I tried to ask him a question about the mechanics of creating a wormhole and he asked me if they were anything like _black holes_. What could you possibly see in him?" Tony demanded, staring at his assistant critically as she stared down at her plate, having been caught staring by Steve twice in one dinner.

"Oh, I don't know; a great body, great hair, those eyes, that voice, the way he looks in football pants...take your pick, Stark." Darcy interjected, locking eyes with the genius.

Tony snorted. "So everything about him aside from his personality and lack of intelligence?"

"Steve has a wonderful personality!" Jane objected immediately. "He says hi to everyone he knows, I don't think he's ever gotten in trouble before, and he always volunteers at the retirement home on weekends!"

"Oh, _please_," Tony laughed, his voice hitching in amusement, "he's a glorified golden retriever! You girls would be better off with literally anybody else. Besides, I hear Rogers hasn't had a girlfriend since kindergarden. I doubt he knows the first thing about women."

"Oh, right, and you know everything about women." Darcy muttered, rolling her eyes.

"I think more than a few ladies would say that I do." Tony responded with a smirk.

"You're disgusting." Pepper informed him.

Tony shrugged in complete insouciance. "At least I'm not Steve Rogers."

The murmurous table was effectively silenced by two new additions to the already crowded dining hall. The tall blond boy and the lanky green-eyed boy both looked around curiously, as though they had never seen a similar setting in their lives.

"Who're the new guys?" Tony inquired, watching the boys with a heightened sense of curiosity.

"The Odinsons. They just transferred here from a different realm, according to Fury. The smaller one, Loki, is super intense. Even Pepper couldn't chat him up. Thor, though...well, Thor is just a complete and total hottie." Darcy answered, watching the boys with a great deal of interest.

"They're the ones Jane left the meeting to talk to, right? Learn anything interesting in the astrology department?" The genius demanded, his eyes never leaving the boys as they shuffled through the dinner line.

Jane shook her head. "I, um, I didn't really get the chance to really talk about it with them."

"Huh. Maybe I should invite them to eat with us, then. Find out what their deal is." Tony speculated, finally tearing his eyes away from the boys in order to observe the reactions of his friends.

Bruce Banner immediately shook his head. "Come on, Stark. These guys just had a meeting with Mr. Fury. They're probably overwhelmed as it is. The last thing they need is to receive an interrogation when they're just trying to eat their dinner."

"I'm with Bruce on this one, Tony. Thor, the taller guy, was at football practice today. He could kick your ass without breaking a sweat." James "Rhodey" Rhodes added.

Rhodey was one of Tony's best friends; he and Bruce were competing for the title. When the genius tired of debating different scientific properties with his soft-spoken roommate, he would relax and play video games with his less scientifically inclined friend.

Tony shushed his friends and waved off their objections immediately.

"I wouldn't be interrogating them, I would be making conversation. I know that socialization is difficult for you, big guy, but I doubt these guys would mind it." He stated, returning his focused, calculating gaze to the boys, who were nearing the end of the line.

"I think we should invite them to sit with us, too. They probably don't have any friends yet. It would be nice to give them a place to sit on their first night." Jane remarked, careful to avoid staring at Thor as she spoke.

Darcy nodded in agreement.

"I would like to talk to Loki more about student government. I feel like he didn't really get a sense of community when he was in my office earlier." Pepper admitted guiltily.

Tony beamed. "Then it's settled. The new guys will sit with us tonight. Jane, why don't you go invite them now? It looks like they're searching for a place to sit."

Jane's eyes narrowed at the commanding voice Tony had used, but her eagerness to speak to the handsome new guy surpassed her irritation. She all but leaped out of her seat and briskly approached the two boys with a wide smile.

The rest of the table watched as Thor returned the smile, while Loki simply stared at her apathetically. Jane laughed as she said something to the boys, turning to gesture back to the table before continuing the conversation. As Thor and Loki's eyes roamed to the table, everyone, aside from the perpetually pompous Tony, waved to the pair, hoping to appear inviting.

Loki's eyes immediately locked with Tony's. While Thor accepted Jane's invitation, the two boys stared at each other curiously. The stare was only broken when Thor placed a heavy hand on the smaller boy's shoulder and practically dragged him towards the table.

"Hey there," Tony greeted the boys amiably, continuing to watch Loki with cautious eyes, "you're the Odinsons, right? I've heard you might know a thing or two about astronomy, maybe even astrophysics. We'll get to that, though. I'm…"

"Tony Stark. I have heard a great deal about you, Mr. Stark. I believe we have much to discuss." Loki interrupted, a devilish grin crossing his face as he extended a hand in Tony's direction.

* * *

**Okay, there's the first chapter! I'm going to *try* to post a new chapter every Monday - at least until classes start back up - but I can't make any promises! Please leave reviews (so that I know what I'm doing right/wrong), as well as favorites and follows if you like the story! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"So, what're you in town for?" Steve questioned conversationally, turning around to make eye contact with Natasha as they walked through the small town that served as the oasis to all S.H.I.E.L.D. students.

The football player was only slightly surprised when he realized that Natasha was no longer behind him. She had a knack for sneaking off without drawing any attention to herself.

"Right, spy-in-training," he muttered to himself with an amused grin, "probably off blackmailing someone for free food."

At the thought of food, Steve reflexively glanced in the direction of the local grocery store. Sam had eaten all of the food in their dorm room. The boys would likely starve if Steve didn't drop by the grocery store while in town.

With a sigh of resignation, the football player shuffled towards the small store, ignoring the copious texts that he was receiving from Bucky. His friend would undoubtedly understand being late for poker night.

He loaded up his grocery cart with piles of the healthiest food the store could offer. Junk food held little appeal for Steve. Beyond that, as the captain of the football team, he considered it a responsibility of his to make sure that Sam ate properly, even when the rest of the team didn't. Carrots instead of chips, yogurt instead of ice cream, and apples instead of cookies. Exactly the way it should be.

Steve glanced down at his phone distractedly as he entered the checkout line. Bucky had texted him ten times. Apparently he had seen Natasha lurking around town and assumed that she had murdered Steve when she had the chance. The corners of the football player's mouth twitched into an amused grin.

"At least someone around here eats healthy." He heard a pleasant British accent remark from the other side of the checkout counter. His eyes immediately shot up to view the owner of the dulcet voice.

It was a girl. He blinked, mentally chiding himself for his momentarily unintelligent thought process. _Obviously_ it was a girl, but she was more than that. She was a fetching girl. He blinked again. No, that wasn't right, either. She deserved more than the half-hearted compliment that vice principal Coulson would give out to the hopeful young ladies of S.H.I.E.L.D. at school dances. She was beautiful. Perfect, even. Steve smiled. That was it, perfect.

"Perfect." He marveled, unaware that he had spoken the word that was bouncing off every bit of surface area in his brain, as opposed to simply announcing the means he planned on using to pay for his groceries.

"I'm sorry?" The girl asked, her thin eyebrows drawing together over her wide brown eyes.

Realizing his mistake, Steve grimaced before attempting to recover from the blunder.

"Oh, uh, the produce section was, er, it was perfect today. I, uh, I'm supposed by eat healthy. You know, with football and stuff." He rambled, feeling his face burn as the girl continued to stare at him in confusion.

She arched an eyebrow.

"I'm Steve." The football player added lamely, casting his eyes down to the large amount of apples lying on the counter in front of him.

"I know." The girl countered, sparing Steve a quick grin before beginning to ring up the items sitting on the counter, eager to avoid a confrontation from her boss, who had begun to linger around the area suspiciously.

A smile broke across Steve's face as he watched the demure, doe-eyed girl focus on the groceries.

"You know?" He inquired.

She smiled up at him. "You are a sort of celebrity around here. Oh, don't look so bashful, you know it's true. You're the big football star at S.H.I.E.L.D. High. My younger brother is always talking about your statistics. He's sure that you're going to play professionally when you graduate."

Steve chuckled, shaking his head. "No, that's definitely not for me. I, uh, I'm actually thinking about going into the service. Football is just something I do for fun."

He tried to catch her eye as she resumed her work. After what felt like an eternity, those big, brown eyes finally flicked up to meet his. They both smiled.

"What do you want to do in the service?" She inquired as she accepted the twenty dollar bill Steve eagerly handed her.

He shrugged with a sheepish grin. "I don't know, yet. Anything they tell me to do, I guess. Mr. Fury said that I'll probably rise through the ranks pretty quickly. Who knows where I'll end up."

"Hopefully not too far." The girl responded quietly, not looking up as she broke the twenty and put together the correct amount of change.

A smile broke across Steve's face, but the football player could not think of an adequate response for the life of him. This girl, this _perfect_ girl, was flirting with him. Not just the way Natasha flirted with him to make him uncomfortable, or the way Darcy flirted with him the way that she absent-mindedly flirted with any guy that crossed her path; this girl was _really_ flirting with him.

"Have a nice day, Steve." She said, handing Steve a collection of bills and coins as he gathered up the grocery bags in both arms.

He grinned and nodded at her before moving in the direction of the exit.

About halfway to the door, he stopped short, as though something had struck him.

"Hey," he called, drawing the attention of half the store, including the perfect check-out girl, "you never did tell me your name."

The girl smiled a perfect smile, glancing around the store as though she were afraid that Steve had been talking to someone else. Once she seemed satisfied that Steve was staring straight at her, her smile widening considerably. "Peggy Carter."

Steve nodded again, unable to bite back the goofy grin he knew was stretched across his face.

"It was really nice meeting you, Peggy."

* * *

"I don't know, there's just something that I don't like about him." Tony Stark murmured as he paced about his dorm room, discarding articles of his clothing as he did so.

Bruce glanced up from his homework half-heartedly. His deep brown eyes were bloodshot, complemented by dark bags forming under his eyes. Fury was already attempting to force Bruce out of the science program by overwhelming him with an increasingly difficult workload. Rooming with Tony on top of the rigorous academic courses was just about more than the boy could bear.

"What do you think is wrong with this guy? He hardly said two words at dinner tonight. His brother did most of the talking. Shouldn't you be worried about him?" The curly-haired boy questioned, chewing on the tip of his pen as he scowled at an impossible schematic chart.

Tony rolled his eyes, throwing on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. Noticing that Bruce had missed this obvious display of ridicule, he snorted loudly.

"Thor is an idiot. No, I don't mean that," the genius amended, snatching his tablet off of his desk and climbing into bed, "he just doesn't have anything to do with me. He's Steve's problem, not mine. No, _Loki_ is going to be a problem for me, mark my words. Didn't you hear him when he said 'I've heard a great deal about you, Mr. Stark. I believe we have a great deal to discuss'. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? We're not even studying the same things. Think he's trying to figure out a plan to oust Pepper from presidency so he can take over?"

"Why would he do that?" Bruce mumbled, not looking up from his homework.

"Darcy said that he and Thor were temporarily banished from Asgard because they were fighting over the throne. I don't think a change of scene is enough to make the bastard any less power-hungry." Tony replied, scrolling through the latest Hawking lecture he had purchased.

"Hm." Bruce grunted, his eyebrows furrowing as he worked through his homework.

Tony spared his roommate an indignant look before rolling his eyes.

"Wonder what he's going to be studying," the genius murmured to no one in particular, setting down his tablet in order to stare up at the ceiling thoughtfully, "can't imagine he'd be interested in science. Not glamorous enough for him. He'll probably study leadership. Hopefully he doesn't have any courses with Pepper. I should probably warn her about Loki. She doesn't think about things the way I do."

Bruce made another non-committal grunt, still not looking up from his homework.

Tony ignored his focused roommate as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and set Pepper a quick, poorly-worded text message. It was better than letting her lose to a greasy-haired kid from another realm, after all.

* * *

"So, do any of you have a homecoming date, yet?" Maria Hill, Pepper's roommate, questioned, plopping on her bed and facing Pepper, Darcy, and Jane, who were sitting on the floor, comparing English notes for their upcoming test.

"Ugh, no. It looks like it'll just be me and a roll of cookie dough. Do you?" Darcy countered, tossing aside her notebook at the opportunity to have a more stimulating conversation.

"Fat chance. I'm a student worker in the administration building. Between following Mr. Fury around and surviving all of my classes, I don't really have time to flirt with anybody worthwhile. I heard there's a really cute new guy, though. Does anybody know anything about that?" Maria replied, her eyes flicking to Pepper curiously.

Darcy and Pepper immediately smirked at Jane, who blushed deeply.

"His name is Thor, and Jane is in love with him. You should have seen the way that they were looking at each other during dinner." Darcy replied, pulling on a strand of Jane's hair playfully.

Jane swatted her hand away, attempting to shake off her best friend's teasing. "Oh, stop, you're going to cause the whole school to gossip about a relationship that doesn't even exist. He's cute and he's nice. That's all there is to it. What about you, Pepper? Do you think that Steve is going to ask you to homecoming? Or maybe Tony?" She questioned, hastily deflecting the attention from herself.

Pepper shook her head vigorously. "_Tony_? Why would Tony ask me to homecoming? I don't think he's even going. If he is, he's probably going to bring one of the poptarts he insists on dating."

"What about Steve, then? He totally caught you staring at dinner tonight." Darcy questioned, already knowing the answer to her own question.

As far as any of them knew, Steve had never asked a girl out. Some people believed it had to do with his odd friendship with Natasha. Others believed it had more to do with his close friendship with Bucky Barnes.

Pepper groaned, covering her face with her hands. "I don't even want to talk about how embarrassing that was. Do you think that I could play it off as staring off into space?"

"Maybe," Jane smiled sympathetically, "but you're going to have to tell him that you were really out of it today, because it happened twice. You don't know, maybe he was flattered by it. I don't think very many girls actually talk to him."

"Can you really blame them? He's flawless. I couldn't expect someone like him to ask me to homecoming. I don't know, I was thinking about going alone. I'll probably be so busy with organizing the dance that I really won't have time to worry about a date, anyway." Pepper replied, absently reaching for her phone as it began to buzz.

Darcy rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "If you keep thinking that way, you'll never meet anybody. Then you'll be forced to follow Tony and his trollopes around for the rest of your life."

"Maybe you could ask Bruce. I know that he doesn't have a date and he's a nice enough boy. Nicer than the majority of the boys here, anyway." Jane suggested with a small smile.

Pepper glanced up from her phone in order to shake her head. "Oh, no, I'm not asking Bruce for a pity date. I doubt he's going to the dance, anyway. Mr. Fury is always discouraging him from going to school activities like dances."

"Why?" Jane inquired curiously.

Pepper shrugged, indicating her lack of knowledge on the matter, before returning her attention to her persistently buzzing cell phone.

"From what I've heard around the office, he has some sort of anger issues that make everyone nervous. Mr. Fury is always talking about ways to keep Bruce calm." Maria remarked.

"Really? _Bruce_? He's the nicest boy I've ever met! I don't think that could be right. Maybe there's another Bruce at this school." Jane objected.

"Unless there's another Bruce Banner, I think he's worried about our very own Bruce. Hey, Pep, are you okay?" Maria questioned, arching an eyebrow as she watched her friend tap away at her cell phone with a determined expression.

Pepper looked up to meet the scrutiny of her friends, forcing a quick smile.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm super. I just need to go take care of something really quickly. Can you wait until I get back to go over parallel structure? That's the only thing that I'm really stressing out about." She answered, leaping up and moving towards the doorway, casting an anxious glance over her shoulder before walking out the door.

* * *

"There you are. I thought Tasha was holding you for ransom in order to extort the dean more than she already does. Come on, my mom's been pacing the kitchen waiting for you. She says she always loves hearing the gossip of S.H.I.E.L.D. High. I think she's just using that as an excuse to overfeed someone other than me, but don't tell her I said that." Bucky sighed as Steve entered his house, putting an arm around the blond's shoulder before guiding him towards the kitchen.

"No, Buck, I've really got to talk to you about something, first." Steve objected, trying to duck out of Bucky's grip to no avail.

"Sorry, buddy, but we've all got our burdens to bear. My mom is just yours. Here, give me those grocery bags. I'll hide them downstairs until you go. If my mom sees them, she'll start sending you back to school with food." Bucky replied, snatching the bags out of Steve's hands and setting them down by the basement stairs before propelling the blond boy towards the kitchen.

"Steve!"

With a sigh, the football player put on his most polite smile and moved forward to accept the hug that Mrs. Barnes was offering.

"Mrs. Barnes, how are you?"

"Oh, just fine, dear. Have you already eaten dinner? There are so many leftovers from dinner. You know how James is, hardly eats a thing. You would think that he's trying to lose weight from the way he picks at his plate. Now, here, sit down and tell me all about school." Mrs. Barnes chirped, already setting to work fixing Steve a plate of food.

Steve glanced down at his stomach. He should have known better than to eat a full meal before going to Bucky's house. Mrs. Barnes, the town's resident ailurophile, was always looking for ways to take care of people, and cats. Steve was her favorite cause; the fact that he had no living parents of his own seemed to give her a sense of obligation to the boy.

"Thanks, Mrs. Barnes, it looks great. Buck, you should eat some of this, too. You're going to want to bulk up a little more before facing S.H.I.E.L.D. on the football field." Steve commented, casting his best friend a smirk.

"Oh! I had almost forgotten that James' school would be playing yours so soon! You're right of course, Steve, he should be eating more!" Mrs. Barnes agreed ebulliently, retrieving a second plate and piling it with the same amount of food.

Bucky glared at Steve. "Very funny. You know that you're going to beat us. You always beat us. Do you guys even practice anymore, or have you just accepted that you've got the best athletes in the state?"

Steve chuckled, shaking his head. "You know that we practice everyday after school. You're welcomed to join us, although most of the guys will think you're crazy for subjecting yourself to my cruel leadership choices. Today, I made them run a few miles. You'd think I was asking them to perform open heart surgery."

"How much is a _few_ miles?" Bucky asked with a knowing grin.

Steve shrugged with a sheepish grin. "I lost count."

"A little bit of running would be good for you," Mrs. Barnes interjected as she handed the boys plates piled high with food, "chasing after a football is a lot healthier than chasing after all of the pretty girls at your school." She pointed her spatula at Bucky, who shook his head and laughed.

"You should be proud of me. I could be like Steve, over here, and chase after the same girl for four years without getting anywhere." The dark-haired boy replied, smirking at his best friend.

Steve scowled. "If this is about Natasha again, you know that we're just friends. If anyone's been chasing after her for the past few years, it's been you."

Bucky punched his friend in the shoulder playfully. "At least I've dated other girls in the interim. You should just let me set you up with one of the girls I know. The girls around here are crazy for you. Might as well put that to use, eh?"

"James Buchanan Barnes! Do not speak about young ladies in such a disrespectful manner! You should be taking a lesson from Steve. I'm sure part of the reason the young ladies in town admire him is because he is a gentleman." Mrs. Barnes commented, jabbing Bucky with a spatula.

"Ow, Ma! You see, this is why I'm never home. C'mon, Steve, let's get out of here while we still can. It'll only get worse from here; I can see the wooden spoon making an appearance in the near future." Bucky muttered, taking one last bite of the food on his plate before dashing out of the kitchen with Steve at his heels.

"Thanks for the food, Mrs. Barnes!" Steve called from over his shoulder as Bucky shepherded him towards the basement.

"Oh, anytime, sweetie!" Mrs. Barnes responded in her distinct, bubbly voice.

"Now that my mom isn't standing over my shoulder, how about letting me set you up with one of the girls at my school? We could double date; it would be fun." Bucky suggested as they made their way over to the poker table, carefully stepping over Beast, Bucky's cat, as they did so.

Both of the boys knew that they wouldn't actually be playing poker; neither of them even knew how. They had always intended to learn, but once they sat down at the table, they would either become so immersed in a conversation that they would forget why there was a deck of cards placed next to Bucky, or they would think of some new adventure to have, one that usually ended up with Bucky getting grounded and Steve sneaking back into the dorm to avoid curfew checks.

Steve sank into his usual chair, glancing down at the cards to avoid making eye contact with his persistent friend. "I don't know, Buck. You and I have pretty different tastes in women. Why are you always trying to set me up, anyway? Getting tired of having a S.H.I.E.L.D. kid sitting around your house and eating all of your food?" He teased, mustering a small smile.

Bucky laughed, shaking his head as he sat across from Steve. "Of course not. If it were up to me, you never would've applied to that school. That way, I'd have someone suffering through Jefferson High with me. I just worry about you, bud. It'd be nice to know that you had someone out there looking after you when I can't."

"I don't need anybody to look after me. If anything, you're the one that needs supervision." Steve responded with a slight smile, flicking a lingering piece of popcorn from their last 'poker night' at his best friend.

Bucky chuckled. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, well, as it happens, I think I might've met a girl today." Steve admitted, focusing on a dent in the table instead of meeting Bucky's eyes.

"Get out of here," his dark-haired friend said, an unmistakable tone of delight forcing his voice up an octave, "who's the lucky girl? Please tell me that it's not another assassin-in-training. I don't think either of us are ready to endure that full-time."

Steve grinned sheepishly, shaking her head. "No, she doesn't go to S.H.I.E.L.D. I wish she did. Actually, she probably goes to your school. Her name's Peggy. Do you know her?" He questioned hopefully.

Bucky stared at Steve in disbelief for a moment before shaking his head. "I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood you. Did you just say that her name was _Peggy_? As in _Peggy Carter_? As in _Peggy Carter; the girl everyone has been trying to talk to since she moved here_?"

Steve quirked an eyebrow. "Everyone?"

Bucky ignored Steve's crestfallen demeanor. "British accent?"

"Yeah, but what do you mean by _everyone_?" Steve persisted, waiting for some kind of explanation from his friend.

Bucky sighed. "That's the girl. I just don't want you to get your hopes up, Steve."

"No, she flirted with me in the grocery store," Steve objected, his eyebrows furrowing as his mind replayed the conversation he had maintained with the girl in the grocery store, "she was talking about how her little brother thought that I was going to play football professionally, and how she hoped that I didn't go anywhere too far after graduating; I'm telling you, Buck, I really think that she likes me."

Bucky stared at Steve appraisingly, as though he could determine Peggy's feelings just by watching the expressions that crossed his best friend's face.

"Alright," He allowed slowly, a grin creeping across his face, "why don't we put your theory to the test? Don't you guys have some type of dance coming up?"

"Homecoming." Steve supplied automatically.

"Yeah, right, that," Bucky agreed, waving off Steve's answer, "why don't you ask Peggy? She's probably hanging out at the diner with her usual crowd. If she really likes you, she'll say yes. If she doesn't, at least you won't spend the next few months pining over yet other uninterested girl."

"Oh, uh, now? I don't really think, I mean...she...we just met." Steve argued feebly.

Bucky jumped up from his seat, grinning widely. "C'mon, buddy, where's your sense of adventure? There's a beautiful British girl just waiting to be asked to the dance. The worst thing she can do is say no!" He exclaimed, bounding towards the basement stairs.

Steve shrugged, unwilling to follow his friend. "She could laugh."

Bucky continued to smile. "Then she'd be laughing at the town's football legend. What girl would get away with that unscathed? How about this: if she says no, I'll find you a date for your dance."

"And if she says yes?" Steve countered with a slight smirk.

Bucky chuckled. "My, aren't we confident?"

"Gotta be something, right?" Steve sighed, grinning sheepishly as he followed Bucky up the stairs, towards the outside world, where Peggy was undoubtedly waiting in the most excruciatingly perfect way possible.

* * *

"Tony?" Pepper whispered, glancing around the dark hallways anxiously.

She knew that she shouldn't have agreed to meet the ridiculous genius in the middle of the school so late at night. He was probably just going to ask her to take care of some of his more tedious homework, anyway.

"Pepper Potts, the most obedient girl in the school. You know, you are always surprising me. Who would have thought that the president of the student body would break the rules so easily? Me, sure, who would be surprised? I break more rules than I could count on my hands and toes. _You_, on the other hand, haven't broken a single one. Until now, that is." Tony's snide voice rumbled through the hallway.

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Okay, Tony, what is it that couldn't wait until tomorrow morning?"

"Can't we just revel in the fact that you're here past curfew? You, my little ingenue, have officially breached your responsibilities as president of the student body. I could have you impeached." He responded in a highly entertained tone, appearing in the dim light of the poorly lit hallway and leaning against a row of lockers.

Pepper folded her arms across her chest. "I don't need to stand here and listen to your condescending speech. You said that you had something really important to tell me. You have ten seconds before I go back to my room and study for my English exam."

Tony snorted, rolling his eyes. "You mean you're studying for that joke of a composition class you're taking? You don't need to study for that. This is much more important. You know that new kid, Loki?"

Pepper's posture straightened slightly. Now Tony had her attention. "What about him?"

"I don't like him."

Pepper's shoulders slumped as she let out a frustrated sigh.

"Are you kidding me?" She whined, throwing a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure that Vice Principal Coulson wasn't lurking around the hallway, "You dragged me out of my room in the middle of the night to tell me that you don't like Loki? How old are you, again? What do you want me to do about it? I'm the student body president, not the dean."

Tony rolled his eyes, frustrated that Pepper didn't understand what he was trying to say. "It's not just a 'he rubs me the wrong way' kind of thing. There are only five people at this school that don't. I don't know, I just have a really bad feeling about the guy."

Pepper sighed, staring at Tony in exasperation. "What do you mean?"

"Did you hear the way he talked to me at dinner? He acted as though we were involved in some sort of top-secret plan, instead of just sitting around eating dinner. I don't know what he's up to, but whatever it is, it can't be good." Tony explained eagerly, thrilled to have a somewhat captive audience. Pepper was paying more attention than Bruce had, anyway.

"And why are you telling me this? Shouldn't you be working through this with one of your cronies, Bruce, or maybe even the administrators here? I'm just your glorified secretary." Pepper reminded him, rolling her eyes once more.

Tony cleared his throat and shuffled his feet. "You're not just my secretary," he muttered unwillingly, "and I think that whatever Loki's up to might involve you. You know why he was sent here, don't you?"

Pepper blinked. "He and his brother kept arguing over who would take the throne. What does that have to do with me? I'm not going to ascend the throne to any foreign countries or different realms."

Tony groaned. "Work with me here, Pep."

Pepper felt her face burn. Tony never used her nickname; he had been the one to torment anyone else who dared to.

"You might not have a throne to steal, but what sort of power _do_ you have?" The genius persisted, not seeming to notice Pepper's momentary shock.

"Student body president." Pepper answered slowly.

Tony nodded, gesturing towards her dramatically, as though she had solved some worldwide crisis instead of answering a simple question.

"Exactly! So, while he's stuck in this hellhole that we call a school, you don't think that he's going to make a play for the most powerful position he could get his hands on?" He explained triumphantly.

Pepper quirked an eyebrow, but couldn't suppress a giggle. "You mean you dragged me out of my dorm room and went through that entire process just to tell me that Loki might want to run for student body president? Tony, that's the entire point of the democratic process! I already encouraged Loki to get involved with the student government."

Tony furrowed his eyebrows, indignant that Pepper was taking his warning so lightly. "Just be careful around the guy. He seems sort of, I don't know, insane." He muttered.

Pepper smiled. "Of course. I wouldn't want anyone to stage a coup when I'm still waiting to hear from colleges," she agreed in amusement, "we can't all be desperately sought-after geniuses. And with that, I should probably get back to studying for that exam. Goodnight."

"Hang on a second," Tony called after her, taking a step in her direction.

"Yeah?" She responded, turning around to stare at the genius inquisitively.

Tony ran a hand through his already messy hair. "Are you going to that dance next weekend?"

"You mean homecoming?"

He shrugged. "If that's what the kids are calling it these days."

Pepper managed to bite back a smile. "Yeah, I think I should probably stop by. It seems like the kind of thing that the student body president would do. Are you going?"

"Considering it."

"Tony Edward Stark, are you actually considering a school event that doesn't involve science? I'm shocked. What brought on this sudden change of heart?" Pepper asked, knowing right off the bat that she didn't actually want to hear the answer.

This was Tony, after all. His reason was undoubtedly either incredibly selfish or horribly perverted.

The genius simply shrugged once again, a slight smile creeping across his face.

"Goodnight, Pepper."

"Night, Tony."

As the two students returned to their respective rooms, another figure emerged from the shadows of the hallway, glancing both ways to watch the retreating teenagers. Once it was evident that neither Tony nor Pepper had noticed the furtive addition to the hallway, the figure let out a chuckle.

"How fascinating." Loki drawled, observing Tony and Pepper's fading figures before sauntering in the direction of his own room.

* * *

"I didn't actually expect her to be here." Steve murmured, making a lackluster attempt at hiding behind Bucky to avoid Peggy's doe eyes.

Bucky chuckled, stepping aside to subject Steve to the curious stares he was receiving from the diner. Before Steve could think of another strategy to hide himself, one of Peggy's friends tapped her shoulder and pointed in Steve's direction, as though she knew that it was exactly what the blond football player had been afraid of.

Peggy's eyes settled on Steve, sending his heart into overdrive. He suddenly remembered why he disliked speaking to pretty girls.

Bucky noticed Steve's rigid posture and laughed, slinging an arm over his shoulder.

"Come on, I'll help you out, pal. You're going to have to do this by yourself next time, though. Can't rely on me forever." The dark-haired boy chuckled, guiding Steve towards Peggy's table, where the group of girls were watching the two boys curiously, some of them quietly whispering to one another and giggling.

Steve opened his mouth to respond to Bucky's statement, but before he could think of the proper retort, he found himself standing in front of the table occupied by Peggy and her friends. Had girls always been this terrifying?

"Steve, hi." Peggy said, affording Steve a charming, utterly perfectly smile.

"Hey, Peggy." Steve replied in a shaky voice, mustering a nervous smile.

"Ladies." Bucky added with a self-satisfied grin.

"Bucky." The girls chorused, rolling their eyes in unison.

Steve had to chuckle as Bucky continued to grin.

"Hey, Lorraine, mind scooting over a bit? Uh, Steve, why don't you grab me a drink while you're up?" Bucky questioned, winking at Steve before sliding into the booth next to a devastatingly attractive blonde that had been watching Steve with a great deal of interest.

Steve arched an eyebrow at his friend, wondering just how Bucky was doing him any favors. As he began to seriously consider returning to S.H.I.E.L.D. on the next bus out of town, Peggy smiled up at him.

"Bucky, you are the laziest boy that I have ever met! Here, Steve, I'll help you carry the drinks. Although I wouldn't blame you if you decided not to get your rotten friend a thing." She offered, standing up from her seat and shooting Bucky a dirty look.

Steve's heart hammered against his chest. He glanced around to see if anyone else could hear it.

Bucky grinned at Steve before turning his attention to the girl by his side.

Steve took the hint and nodded, smiling at Peggy awkwardly. "Yeah, that'd be great. So, uh, so do you come here often?" He asked as the pair slowly made their way to the counter.

"Hey, Rogers," Bucky called from the booth, a mischievous twinkle lighting up his eyes, "get me a buffalo chicken pizza while you're at it, would you? I'll pay you back later."

Steve nodded with a slight grin before following Peggy to the counter and placing an order for a large buffalo chicken pizza and two waters.

"Why do you let him talk to you that way?" Peggy asked as they waited for the order to be filled.

Steve glanced at her in surprise. "Who, Bucky?"

She nodded.

Steve shrugged sheepishly. "He's my best friend. He doesn't always demand that I fetch him food. He's just, uh, he's looking out for me."

Peggy raised her eyebrows. "How is _this_ looking out for you?"

Steve glanced at the ground, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Well, he, uh, he was just trying to give me a chance to talk to you alone."

His face burned as Peggy stared at him stupidly. He should have known better than to go along with Bucky's stupid plan. Bucky had warned him; he said that _everyone_ tried to ask Peggy on a date. There was nothing special in particular about Steve; he was just a kid from Brooklyn. Why would Peggy choose him over anyone else?

"Why did you want to talk to me alone?" She asked in almost a whisper.

Steve studied her in confusion. "Because you're, well, you. You're perfect."

"Perfect?" Peggy laughed, shaking her head so a few dark curls fell around her face. "Steve, I am not perfect. Isn't that a bit much to think of somebody you met only a few hours ago?"

Steve shook his head quickly. "No, you are. I mean, maybe I'm coming across a little strong, but I mean," he sighed, unsuccessfully searching for the correct words, "jeez, it's like you're this beautiful girl who just says all the right things and you make me feel like a blubbering idiot the entire time, then you smile like that," Steve gestured towards the smile creeping across Peggy's face, "and I don't feel like such an idiot anymore. I guess I don't really know how to explain it without seeming like a lunatic who's never spoken to a girl before, but I like you, Peggy, I really do. Do you think that there's any way that you could consider giving me a chance? It doesn't have to be a big chance; I could be the guy whose number you scroll by every time you're on your phone. I just need something, here."

Peggy smiled, rolling her eyes. "You are not a blubbering idiot. I would be more than happy to give you all of the chances in the world." She replied, batting her long eyelashes as Steve stared back at her in disbelief.

"Really? That's, I mean, thank you." Steve blinked. "No, I don't mean thank you, well, thank you, I guess, but, uh." He closed his eyes, knowing that there was no way for him to salvage whatever it was that he had intended to say.

A light hand fell on his arm. His eyes snapped open as he stared at Peggy questioningly, hoping that she would think of something to say. She seemed to possess far more eloquence than Steve. That was bound to come in handy during their more awkward encounters. Though, Steve did hope that it didn't get more awkward than this.

"Maybe you should stop talking for a little while." Peggy suggested with a small smile.

Steve chuckled, nodding his head. "I probably should, but I have the sneaking suspicion that if I leave it at that, you'll never let me talk to you again."

Steve's thought process was interrupted as his order was called at the counter. With a hanging head, he moved forward to grab the pizza box and the drinks.

"Steve," Peggy's voice halted him immediately. "If you wanted to ask me on a date, now would be a very good time to do it."

Steve perked up. He turned to meet her eyes in a combination of surprise and excitement. The most perfect girl was not only absurdly understanding about his lack of charisma, but she actually going to let him ask her on a date. Why hadn't Bucky thought to introduce Steve to this perfect girl before their accidental meeting at the grocery store? He reminded himself to scold his friend for it later.

Running a hand through his meticulously groomed hair, Steve made an honest effort to maintain eye contact with Peggy. "Uh, well, I, uh...are you doing anything next Friday night?"

Peggy smiled and shook her head, silently urging him to continue.

"Great, well, um, my school is having this dance, you know, homecoming, and I don't usually bring a date to that sort of thing, but, uh, I would really like it if you'd go with me." He said, forcing himself to smile in what he hoped in what he hoped was not a totally creepy manor.

Peggy faltered for a moment, as though the mention of a school dance had suddenly changed her mind. Steve's heart sank. Did she dislike dances? He couldn't exactly blame her; he wasn't a sublime dancer, himself. His mind began racing, providing completely unhelpful suggestions of terribly cliche dates he could suggest instead.

Before he could come up with an answer to offer Peggy, she smiled up at him. "I would love to go to your dance with you." She assured him, putting his spinning mind to rest with the bat of two perfect eyelashes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

S.H.I.E.L.D. High seemed to be an entirely different place the day before the homecoming dance. Girls were milling around the hallways in the hopes that the shy boy of their dreams would gather up the courage to ask them out. Boys were casting each other dirty looks, hoping that none of their friends had found the nerve to ask the pretty girl from their shared classes to the dance. Professors and administrators were avoiding any and all meetings with anxious students until the dance was out of the way and the tension the dance had brought along with it was eliminated.

Tony Stark, usually indifferent to the effects that homecoming had on the student body, couldn't help but feel slightly at edge throughout the course of the week. He hadn't bothered asking a girl to go with him because he hadn't seen the need. Any of the girls he had been considering asking would without a doubt be single at the dance.

"Are you sure that there's nothing I can say to persuade you to go to the dance tomorrow night? You could be my date, if you really wanted. I could get you a corsage, we could slow dance together, it would be great." Tony teased, smirking at Bruce as the two boys sat in the back of their astrophysics lecture.

Bruce glanced up at the professor before turning to look at Tony and shaking his head. "As much as I would enjoy being your date, I have a sneaking suspicion that we would never escape the 'science bros' rumors if the student body were to see us slow dancing at homecoming."

Tony quirked an eyebrow. "Science bros?"

"Don't play stupid, Tony. It doesn't suit you."

Tony chuckled. He was perfectly aware of the rumors. In an effort to bring the genius down a notch, some students had begun to spread rumors that he and Bruce were involved in some kind of secret romantic roommate relationship. Bruce had been horrified at the rumors, while Tony had been nothing but amused.

The genius shrugged, grinning at his unamused friend. "Alright, alright, if you want to devastate your fellow science bro, why don't you just ask somebody else? Darcy Lewis isn't that bad as long as she doesn't talk. Maria Hill is alright too, if you don't mind that type of girl. Think about it. It could be fun."

Bruce chewed on the eraser of his pencil thoughtfully, staring ahead at the board, where the professor was explaining something that both of the boys had already studied the previous semester. At least the homework would be much easier than the previous chapter's homework assignments had been.

"No, no, school dances aren't really for me. Besides, I, uh, I've got a lot of homework to do this weekend. Why do you need me to go, anyway? I know that you're only going to see Pepper." The shorter boy muttered, scribbling down useless notes in order to avoid the insulted glare he was receiving from Tony.

"Pepper? Why would I go to a school dance to see Pepper? I can see her whenever I want. If I texted her right now, she would walk through that door in the next ten minutes. You're just trying to deflect the attention. I know all of your strategies, Banner. It might work with some of the other yahoos around this school, but not me. Is this about Betty? I thought you were over her."

Bruce glowered at Tony. "This doesn't have anything to do with Betty, I just don't want to go to the dance. Leave it alone."

Tony sighed, rolling his eyes. "Hey, I'm not judging you. You guys dated for a while and then she dumped you right out of the blue. I get it. It was harsh. You can't wallow in it forever, though. What you need to do is go to the dance with some girl who thinks that she's never going to get asked, maybe suffer through an hour or two at the dance, then bring her back to the room and get over Betty once and for all. I could sleep somewhere else if you want."

The curly-haired boy sighed, removing his glasses in order to pinch the bridge of his nose. While he was counting backwards from ten, the professor noticed that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s two star students weren't paying even the least bit of attention to the lecture.

"Do you two need to continue this conversation out in the hallway?" The strict man demanded, causing the rest of the class to turn and look at the embarrassed Bruce Banner and the smirking Tony Stark.

Tony waved off the professor's comment. "No, that's alright, Dr. Selvig. I was just helping out a woebegone friend. You weren't distracting us, rest assured. Well, go ahead, then. You were in the middle of a rudimentary lecture, weren't you?"

Bruce's eyes widened. It was one thing for Tony to mouth off in his classes - Tony was always mouthing off - but it was an entirely different thing when he decided to involve Bruce in his bad behavior. Tony might have gotten away with it, being horrendously wealthy, intelligent and charismatic, but Bruce only had one of those qualities, and a handful of negative traits that Mr. Fury could easily use to boot him out of the science program.

Dr. Selvig wasn't stupid. He knew that Tony was untouchable. His sharp eyes turned to Bruce instead.

The curly-haired boy swallowed hard, glancing down at his hands anxiously. There wasn't a trace of green, yet. At least he had something going for him.

"I'm thrilled to hear that I'm not interrupting your important conversations. Perhaps you'll fill me in on why you need a private therapy session from Mr. Stark during my class after the bell rings, Mr. Banner." Dr. Selvig responded sharply, casting both of the boys a dark look before picking up where he had left off.

Bruce glared at Tony, but pretended to pay attention for the rest of the highly redundant lecture.

At the end of class, Tony leapt out of his seat and stared at Bruce expectantly.

"You coming, Banner? I hear that lunch is actually pretty decent today." The taller boy said, grinning down at his friend, oblivious to the anger that was coursing through Bruce's veins.

The shorter boy scowled. "No, Tony, I'm not coming. I have to tell Dr. Selvig why I needed a private therapy session from you today. I don't know why I keep sitting next to you in classes. You always find a way of getting me into trouble."

Tony snorted. "Don't be such a drama queen! Selvig is a marshmallow, he'll let you off with a warning. Darcy got out of a detention after spilling hydrochloric acid on her lab partner in basic chemistry last year. I doubt he'll send you to Fury's office for talking to the school's most valuable asset. Just tell him that I was explaining the lecture to you."

Bruce's eyes narrowed. "Just go to lunch, Stark. Don't you have an assistant to ask to homecoming, anyway?"

Tony flipped Bruce off in the least subtle manner possible. "Go to hell, Banner. I hope they expel your ass."

Bruce rolled his eyes, but smiled against his will as Tony skulked off towards the dining hall. Once his roommate was out of sight, Bruce turned to meet the stare of a very unhappy professor. Swallowing hard, the curly-haired boy got out of his seat and trudged to the front of the room.

"I'm sorry for the interruption today, sir," he mumbled, not meeting Dr. Selvig's intense gaze, "it won't happen again. I can move away from Tony if you think that we talk too much."

Dr. Selvig chortled. Bruce looked up at him in surprise.

"If I tried to move you away from Stark, he would just follow you across the room. This isn't my first class with him; I know exactly what he's up to. I just hoped that forcing you to stay after class might make him re-think his behavior in class."

"Sir?" Bruce questioned, raising an eyebrow at the professor.

"Technically, I shouldn't be telling you any of this, but I figure since you've lived with him for a few semesters, you probably already know everything I have to say. Tony is a very smart boy, but until he learns to get past his problems with authority figures, he's never going to find out what he's truly capable of. Fury won't let any of the professors punish him, which is about the worst thing he could do to the boy."

"So you punished me instead, because you thought that Tony might feel bad about it?"

"That's a very simplified version of it, but essentially, yes."

Bruce had to laugh. "Dr. Selvig, with all due respect, sir, that is the worst idea I've ever heard. It doesn't matter who gets in trouble, he's going to do anything he wants the moment he wants to do it. The only way to keep him quiet during lecture is to muzzle him."

Dr. Selvig laughed his agreement. "That's probably true. You'd best be off then, Mr. Banner. I believe the dining hall is serving pizza today."

A smile slid across Bruce's face. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to miss that. Thanks, Dr. Selvig. And, uh, good luck with Tony."

"Good luck, yourself." The professor replied, allowing Bruce a knowing grin before turning his attention to his paperwork.

* * *

"A little birdy told me that you got in past curfew last night. Is my little Steve growing into the angsty trouble maker I knew he was destined to be?" Natasha teased as Steve sat down next to hear at lunch, her green eyes dancing with amusement.

Steve cast a half-hearted glare at Sam and Clint.

"Which bird: the hawk or the falcon?" Steve questioned, his mouth quirking into a smile.

"Falcon, of course. What the hell would Barton be doing in your dorm room last night?" Natasha replied, rolling her eyes and shaking her head as though Steve had asked the most ridiculous question on the planet.

The blond shrugged sheepishly. "He monitors everything. It wouldn't really surprise me if he found a perch right outside of my room."

"No, no, no dancing around the subject, Rogers. What were you doing out so late? Don't tell me that your poker night got so intense that you completely lost track of time." Sam interjected.

Steve rolled his eyes. "I was just talking with some friends. Why is everyone so concerned about it? I know for a fact that every one of you have missed curfew at least a handful of times."

Barton folded his arms across his chest with a smirk. "Nat said that she saw Pepper walking back to her dorm room after curfew."

Steve arched an eyebrow. "So? What does that have to do with me?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Really, Steve, are you trying to make this more complicated than it needs to be? Did you ask Pepper to the dance? She was talking about coordinating colors with her date in English today, and since you were both out so late, I thought that maybe…" She trailed off, raising her eyebrows evocatively.

Steve felt his face redden as he shook his head hastily. "Why would I ask Pepper Potts to the dance? Stark probably asked her. Honestly, I didn't even know that she missed curfew last night. Besides, I, uh, I actually already have a date to homecoming."

Everyone at the table gaped at the football player, who returned his attention to his lunch in the hopes that his friends would just let the topic go.

He should have known better.

"Why didn't you tell me that you had a date? When did you get a date? It couldn't have been last night, because..._oh_. Are you taking Bucky?" Natasha asked in a hushed whisper, glancing around to see if anybody else had heard their conversation.

Steve scowled. "No, I'm not taking Bucky to homecoming. I'm actually taking a girl. I met her last night in town. You guys'll just have to meet her at the dance. You're going, right?"

Natasha nodded with a blank stare.

"So is this girl the reason that you were so late last night?" Sam asked with a knowing grin.

Steve smiled sheepishly. "Yeah. We went and got ice cream, and, I don't know, we just talked all night. She's great. I have no idea why she agreed to go to the dance with me."

"Well, well, it looks like our noble captain is finally in love! Does this mean that I'm going to have to find another place to crash after the dance? I guess I could get Thor to let me bunk at his place." Sam said, casting a thoughtful glance in the direction of the blond demi-god.

"Whoa, what do you think is going on over there?" Barton questioned as the group noticed a rift within the friends sitting at the table opposite them.

Tony looked infuriated. Infuriated might have actually been an understatement. He was jabbing a finger at Loki, who was simply smirking at the genius with his chatoyant eyes. Thor was saying something that looked like a warning, while Pepper rolled her eyes and said something that was most likely an instruction for Tony to calm down.

The group continued to watch the conflict. Loki said something with a smirk before standing up and sauntering over to the condiments station, glancing out the window thoughtfully as he did so. Never one to let anyone else have the last word, Tony leapt out of his seat and pursued the lanky boy. Rhodey, Tony's best friend, followed after the genius, looking highly exasperated.

Tony placed a heavy hand on Loki's shoulder. Thor leapt out of his seat at the sight, but before the brawny demi-god could do anything to assist his younger brother, Loki's hands constricted around Tony's throat.

Every student in the dining hall leapt to their feet. Fights were uncommon at S.H.I.E.L.D., despite the fact that the student body consisted of extraordinarily talented individuals competing with one another. What was even rarer, however, was a fight involving Tony Stark. Every student with an ounce of common sense knew better than to mess with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s wonder boy. If Nick Fury didn't think up a punishment severe enough, Tony's mother would undoubtedly intervene with highly skilled lawyers.

No one had time to stop Loki. Before anyone, including Tony, could truly accept what was happening, Loki had lifted the genius off of his feet and tossed him through the nearby window as though Tony were nothing but a rag doll.

"Holy _shit_!" Clint exclaimed as the group rushed towards the smashed window, along with the rest of the student body.

The mass of gawking teenagers were treated to the sight of a stupefied Tony Stark sprawled on the school's lawn. Luckily, the genius had been testing concealed armor; it definitely needed some tweaking before he jumped off of a cliff, but it had at least protected him enough to survive the fall.

"Did you see that? The kid threw Stark clear through the window! Fury is going to go _nuts_." Steve exclaimed, glancing down at Natasha before craning his neck for a better look at the scene.

Thor pushed through the crowd, sparking more than a few disgruntled protests and objections from the indignant students surrounding him. Without hesitating, the taller boy grabbed his younger brother by the collar of his shirt and all but dragged him away from the window. Spectators watched with avid curiosity, but did not dare interrupt what was obviously a difficult family moment.

"Brother, have you no idea why mother and father sent us to this facility? They mean for us to learn peace and kindness. Do you think this to be a kindness? Tossing our new friend from a great height over a becoming maiden?" Thor growled, ignoring the rest of the curious onlookers as he glowered at Loki.

Loki glared back stubbornly, but responded in a low tone; neither Steve, nor the rest of the curious student body, could hear a word that he was saying.

Before anyone could bother edging closer to the brothers, Nick Fury burst through the doors of the dining hall, storming over to the brothers quickly, a dark scowl set on his face. The crowd immediately dissipated.

"Think Loki's going to get expelled?" Steve questioned as he followed his friends back to their usual table.

Natasha and Clint immediately shook their heads.

"Stark may be _like_ royalty, but Loki_ is_ royalty. Tasha and I read up on his file last night. Every one of the kid's past teachers have had some pretty fucked up things happen to them when they tried to punish him. He's apparently good at painful spells." Clint explained in a hushed tone, throwing a cautious glance over his shoulder.

Steve whistled, watching Fury escort a smirking Loki out of the dining hall, trailed by a persistent Thor. "What do you think they were arguing about, anyway?"

"Loki asked Pepper to homecoming." A deep voice came from behind the group.

Steve turned to see Rhodey standing behind them, looking thoroughly amused, despite the fact that his best friend had just been thrown out of a window. Sam immediately slid closer to Clint, patting the empty space he had created as a silent invitation for Rhodey.

Rhodey accepted the invitation, grinning at the group as he sat down.

Steve folded his arms across his chest, arching an eyebrow at the new addition to the table. "Did he really? What does Stark care? From what I've been hearing, he's dating every other girl within a ten-mile radius."

Rhodey chuckled, shrugging off Steve's comment. "Everybody knows that Tony's had a thing for Pepper since junior year. He just hasn't grown the balls to own up to it. I guess now he can't really lie about it anymore. Banner and I just made a bet on when he and Pepper get together. You want in on it? We could make it a pool."

"Oh, please," Natasha snorted, rolling her eyes. "Like Pepper would really agree to go out with Stark after _that_." She pointed to the window distastefully. "He was already bad enough to begin with. I don't think harassing the first guy to pay her any extra attention is really a great way to impress the ladies."

"You're just saying that because you wanted to set Steve up with Pepper." Clint commented, casting Natasha a sideways grin before ducking to avoid the well-aimed punch she sent his way.

The focus turned to Steve. Sam and Rhodey both laughed and jeered at the prospect of Steve dating the organized young woman, while Clint and Natasha bickered over the logistics of their imagined relationship. Steve watched his friends curiously, unable to understand why his romantic affairs interested them as much as they did.

"I just want to see Steve in love with someone other than Bucky Barnes." Natasha claimed, as though she could read Steve's mind.

He choked on air, taken aback by her comment. "In love with…? Nat, really."

The redhead grinned back at him before resuming her meal, allowing the rest of the boys at the table to tease Steve mercilessly.

Steve sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Can't we just talk about the fact that Tony got thrown out of a window by a Norse god? I think it's much easier than discussing my love life with all of you."

* * *

Later that evening, a loud knock drew Natasha Romanoff's attention away from her studies. She spared a cautious glance back at her roommate, another Asgardian exchange student named Sif. She appeared to be sound asleep. Good. With a small smile, the redhead slunk towards the door, opening it quietly and slipping out into the hallway almost immediately.

"What are you doing here?" Natasha heard herself asking in a ridiculously silly voice, locking eyes with the grinning archer standing in the hallway with her.

"Couldn't sleep," Clint responded, a mischievous glimmer appearing in his eyes, "After everything that happened in the dining hall earlier, I couldn't stop thinking about something."

The redhead raised her eyebrows inquisitively, but smiled playfully. "Let me guess: you couldn't stop thinking about the ways that Tony could have saved himself from hitting the ground? Are you thinking about coming up with a special arrow on the off-chance that Loki decides to throw you out of a window, too?"

Clint cocked his head to the side. "You know, I wasn't thinking about that until you mentioned it. I could rig an arrow to have some sort of grappling hook come out of the end. I don't know how I'd get a rope to expand from the body of the arrow, but I could probably get Tony to help me out with that part. He's taken enough engineering classes to sort of know what he's doing."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Barton. Focus. What did you think was so important that you couldn't wait to tell me about it until tomorrow morning?"

"Don't act as though I'm distracting you from anything important, Tasha. You were just going to spend another boring night sitting at your desk trying to memorize the z-score chart. There's really no need; the professors surprise you with the chart at the final. They think it's a funny prank to play every semester. I might have been interrupting any girl talk you were having with Sif, or maybe a gossipy phone call with Agent Hill, but somehow, I figured you'd prefer my company to hers."

Another eye roll. "Why do you call everybody studying to become a spy 'agent'? It's so pretentious. Just call her Maria. I don't think that she'll be a very good agent, anyway." The redhead remarked as the pair sank down to the floor, sitting across from one another in the hallway.

"I don't call you 'agent'." Clint reminded her, an amused smile playing on his lips.

Natasha's lips twitched into a smile. "Does that mean you don't respect me?"

Clint shrugged, still grinning. "It just means I think of you as more than another agent to worry about."

"I think we learned not to trust other agents on the first day of class. You're making a few textbook mistakes right now."

An amused chuckle rumbled from the archer's chest. "Am I?"

"You are." Natasha couldn't stop herself from resting her narrow shoulder against her friend's broader shoulder.

"Maybe you should tell me to stop." Clint suggested, leaning a bit closer to Natasha.

Natasha's eyes widened slightly. "Maybe I should." She agreed, swallowing hard and nodding her head clumsily.

Clint's mouth curved into a smirk as another chuckle left his throat.

Natasha blinked, trying to avoid looking down at the blond's lips as he inched closer and closer by the second.

"I wouldn't have listened to you, anyway." He murmured, closing the distance and pressing his lips against Natasha's before she could think of an intelligible response.

It was a relatively chaste kiss. Afterwards, the archer scooted just far enough from her once more. Natasha stared at him with a blank expression. She was very careful to maintain this blank stare; she knew better than to buy into Clint's cheerful demeanor. He was just as good at reading people as she was. He would see through her in an instant if she allowed her face to betray her.

Clint smiled as though he could read her mind. "Relax, Nat. This isn't a training exercise. I'm not trying to get in your head. Give me a little bit more credit than that."

Natasha allowed herself to smile slightly, hoping that Clint would not utilize the information that they had learned in their intelligence course the previous semester. He hadn't paid a great deal of attention in that class, so it was entirely possible that he would overlook the all-too-obvious thoughts racing through her mind.

"There you go." The blond praised, affording the redhead a lopsided grin. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Natasha's eyes narrowed. She tried to bite back a smile without a great deal of success. "Don't patronize me, Barton. I can call Steve and tell him to throw you off of the football team. Fury would be pretty mad at you if he did."

"How about we don't mention Rogers when I'm trying to ask you to homecoming?" He suggested teasingly.

"You're asking me to homecoming?" The redhead clarified in surprise. She had been the only student at S.H.I.E.L.D. who had not seen this particular question coming. Even Steve had reluctantly accepted that the pair was bound to go to homecoming together. Still, Clint fidgeted under Natasha's inquisitive stare, suddenly unsure of the question that had been running through his mind for days on end.

He nodded hesitantly, his effervescent disposition crumbling as nerves got the better of him. He had been relatively certain that Natasha would immediately agree. After all, they made perfect sense. They were good together. He had not stopped to consider the possibility that she would only want to be friends.

Natasha stood up, wiping the dust off of her pants as she did so. Clint watched her curiously, wondering if he had managed to scare off the bravest student at S.H.I.E.L.D. High. He couldn't decide if doing so would be an accomplishment or the most terrible thing he had done to date.

The redhead smiled wryly as she approached the door to her room, throwing a glance over her shoulder in the archer's direction. "Pick me up at seven. Wear red."

* * *

**You asked and you received! An overwhelming amount of people asked for Clintasha - I hope this fits the bill :) As always, any favorites/follows/reviews that you have to offer would be really appreciated. I really do read all of the reviews and take them into account when I'm writing. Plus they make me smile, which is always a bonus. I hope you enjoy the chapter :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

"Relax, pal. She agreed to go out with you in the first place, didn't she? She must like you at least a little bit. Just don't screw that up." Bucky chuckled as Steve paced the length of his bedroom, nervously trying to piece together a casual greeting to use the moment that he picked Peggy up from her house.

Steve shook his head. "What if she makes me meet her parents? I'm never really good with parents. I always say the wrong thing. Should I shake her dad's hand or not? He might not like physical contact. Some people don't." He rambled, cramming his hands in his pockets and hanging his head as he continued his pacing.

Bucky rolled his eyes, exasperated by his best friend's behavior. He never understood Steve's lack of confidence. "Sit down, take a deep breath, and calm down. You can't go over to Peggy Carter's house on the brink of a panic attack. Everything is going to be fine. Maybe her parents won't even be home. You're getting worked up over nothing."

Steve nodded once, moving to sit on Bucky's bed in the hopes of calming down at least a little bit. The sudden movement startled Beast, Bucky's cat, who promptly leapt off of the bed in order to avoid the potential threat. After realizing that Steve was not a threat at all, the lissome creature wound itself around the blond's legs, rubbing against him and purring all the while.

Both Steve and Bucky's eyes widened. The gray cat was leaving behind a collection of fur all over Steve's black pants.

"Beast, no!" Bucky groaned, chasing the cat away just a little too late.

While Bucky shooed his cat away, Steve tried to brush the fur off of his pants anxiously. To his dismay, it was not budging at all. The blond was beginning to think that he was trapped in one of his worst nightmares to date.

"This is a sign," He murmured, running his hand through his hair frantically, "This is a sign that I shouldn't go to the dance tonight. You know, it's probably for the best. I was never really good at dancing anyway. I'll just take Peggy to see a movie. I heard that new Disney movie is good."

"No. You are not backing out of this dance." Bucky growled, folding his arms across his chest and shaking his head. "I am not going to listen to Peggy walk around school on Monday complaining about going on some crappy date because you got a little cat hair on your pants. C'mon, I'm sure my mom has a lint roller around here somewhere."

* * *

"You are attending tonight's festivities joined by the boy with the arrows?" Sif questioned dubiously, watching her roommate apply her makeup at her desk.

Natasha's eyes finally shifted from the mirror so that she could take in Sif's rather glamorous appearance. "His name is Clint; I've told you that a million times."

"It has not been nearly so often." Sif objected in a thoroughly insulted tone.

The redhead rolled her eyes. She frequently forgot that her roommate did not understand the difference between literal meanings and hyperboles. All of the students from Asgard had trouble adopting the casual sayings and turns of phrases that had become second-nature to the majority of the student body. Thor had been horrified when Steve had claimed to be hungry enough to eat a horse.

Satisfied with her appearance, Natasha tossed her makeup in one of the drawers of her desk carelessly. Her eyes flicked up to meet Sif's once more as she started for the door.

"It's just an expression; it means that I've told you his name a lot. You really should have learned it by now." She paused, noticing that Sif had put even more effort into her appearance than usual. "Who are you going to the dance with?"

Sif's eyes narrowed. "No one."

"Hm." Natasha murmured appraisingly, giving her roommate one last look-over before exiting the room. She had no desire to wait around another ten minutes for Clint to appear, assuming that he would miraculously show up on time. She strongly suspected that he had already lost track of the time and was nowhere near ready to go anywhere other than the dining hall.

* * *

"Why are you dragging me to homecoming, Tony?" Rhodey grumbled as he leaned against the side of Bruce's desk, watching as the genius tore about the room in search of the 'perfect' tie.

Once Bruce had made it perfectly clear that he would not accompany Tony to the dance under any circumstances, Tony had begged Rhodey to tag along. The genius had even gone so far as to pay for his ticket, his suit, and any food or drinks he felt were necessary for surviving the evening. Tony truly had been desperate.

Tony dropped to his hands and knees, peering under his bed in an effort to locate the missing tie. "Pepper's going to the dance with that Loki guy. I don't think I have to explain why I think that's a bad idea, do I?"

Rhodey and Bruce exchanged exasperated looks. Neither of them had commented on Tony's borderline obsession with Loki since their confrontation in the dining hall. The mere mention of the demi-god's name could set the genius off on an hour-long rant on the dangers of his nemesis that was semi-coherent at the best of times.

Instead of answering the rhetorical question, Rhodey changed the subject. "Have you made your over-extravagant plans for Christmas break yet?"

The Stark family always spent an absurd amount of money in order to avoid the cold New York weather on Christmas. Tony took great pleasure in bragging about the intended destination, reminding his classmates that while they would be shoveling massive piles of snow, he would be stretched out on a sandy beach somewhere.

In an effort to better socialize their son, Tony's parents would often encourage him to bring a friend along. He would usually alternate between Bruce and Rhodey in order to maintain the delicate balance of his friendships. Rhodey was hoping that he would be the selected friend this year; he had heard that there would be a sizable amount of snow this year.

"Oh, uh, nothing is set in stone yet. It's only October. I think I might bring Pepper with me." Tony murmured, scratching the back of his head as he continued looking around the room in search of his tie; acting as though he had said something entirely meaningless.

Rhodey looked horrified at the very suggestion. "Why are you bringing Pepper? I thought that you two were just friends."

"Aha!" Tony exclaimed triumphantly, pulling his tie out of the mini fridge and draping it around his neck. His attention returned to Rhodey, who was still staring at him with wide eyes. "Why am I bringing Potts? She's useful. I might need her to organize things."

Bruce smiled as he chewed on his pen, but did not comment. He had been listening to Tony ramble on and on about the student body president for long enough. He had no desire to spark yet another conversation about Pepper's virtues and Loki's potential evil intentions. Still, it was amusing to hear his roommate continue to deny his all-too obvious crush on Pepper Potts.

Rhodey, on the other hand, considered this particular subject worth the inevitable lecture. "What could you possibly need organized over Christmas break?"

"Things." Tony answered cryptically, busying himself with his tie in order to avoid further questions.

"Things?" Rhodey echoed, staring at the genius expectantly.

Tony glared at his best friend before shaking his head, dismissing the argument altogether. Everyone knew that he could not think of a valid reason to bring Pepper along without confessing any feelings that he might have for his assistant.

"Let's just go; we're already ten minutes late. You sure that you want to sit around the room and brood all night instead of coming with us, Banner? There might be a girl at the dance just waiting for you." The genius said, promptly shifting the topic despite Rhodey's annoyed scowl.

Bruce smiled and shook his head. He did not bother explaining that he was not allowed to attend the dance. Doing so would only cause Tony to create a big fuss with the school's administrators, who would then be forced to explain that their rationale behind banning Bruce was their knowledge of his 'anger management struggles'. Bruce preferred to keep that particular aspect of himself hidden from the student body.

"Alright, take it easy, buddy. Try not to stay up too late with that thermonuclear project; you'll make me look bad if you make yet another scientific breakthrough this month." Tony chuckled, affording his roommate a friendly grin before dragging Rhodey out of the room, ignoring his consistent line of questioning regarding the Christmas vacation.

* * *

"Hey, have you guys read these Norse mythologies?" Darcy asked, lounging in her favorite common room chair and reading an old leatherbound book as Pepper and Jane anxiously awaited the arrival of their dates. "Jane, if there's an awkward silence at any point tonight, ask Thor about the time that he cross-dressed in order to kill a giant. It's the perfect ice-breaker."

Jane frowned while Pepper laughed. "You shouldn't be reading those stories; we don't even know if any of them are true." The brunette objected, combing her hair with her fingers and fidgeting nervously as Darcy continued to flip through the pages of the old book.

"You had better hope that they aren't." Darcy responded, not looking up from the book.

Jane rolled her eyes and turned to Pepper. "I can't believe that we're going to homecoming with Norse gods. Have you talked to Tony about the whole, um, _thing_, yet?"

Pepper shook her head immediately. She had not spoken to, or even seen, the genius since he had been thrown out of the window by her homecoming date. Had it been anyone other than Tony, Pepper would have been worried. Since it was Tony, however, she had simply assumed that he was busy with either the project that Dr. Selvig had assigned or the newest robotics blueprints that had been drawn up just the week before.

"He's been really busy lately," She explained, ignoring the sympathetic look that she was receiving from Jane, "apparently Dr. Selvig assigned a really tough project. It isn't out of character for him to go off of the grid for days at a time. I won't consider it a crisis until he starts sleeping more than three hours a night."

"Three hours?" Jane echoed in surprise. She had always gotten a healthy eight hours a night, knowing that her mind would not work properly the next day unless she was well-rested. The thought of accomplishing as much as Tony Stark did on three hours of sleep was astonishing, as well as mildly disheartening.

The disappointed science student was effectively silenced as the silhouette of a tall, muscular boy and a slightly taller, lankier boy came into view. Jane and Pepper smiled at each other in a combination of excitement and nervousness.

"Jane Foster, Pepper Potts; it is an honor." Thor greeted them, bowing his head slightly before beaming at Jane, his blue eyes dancing with excitement. Jane could only smile back, helplessly overwhelmed by the butterflies in her stomach.

Loki nodded in Pepper's direction, wearing a pained expression that might have caused an onlooker to believe that he was being held against his will. Pepper did not read too much into this look; the lanky demi-god always seemed to look that way.

Thor immediately began uttering numerous sentiments regarding Jane Foster. Erstwhile, Loki's narrowed green eyes surveyed the room, as the girls' common room was one of the only rooms on campus that he had not yet explored. His eyes immediately came to rest on Darcy, who was ignoring the sequence of events in favor of reading a book that the lanky boy immediately recognized.

"Well now, brother; it seems that Darcy Lewis has found the book that we have inspired." He drawled, sauntering over to where Darcy was lounging with a cat-like smirk.

Darcy immediately looked up from the book with a coy smile. She seemed to be the only student that was completely at ease around the mischievous demi-god. Pepper and Jane made an honest effort at making Loki feel comfortable at the school, but could not dismiss their own feelings of uneasiness. Darcy simply teased and flirted him as though he were like any other student.

"We're going to talk about the horse thing at breakfast tomorrow." She assured Loki, winking at him once before returning her attention to the book, effectively ignoring the mixed expressions that were crossing the faces of her friends.

Jane broke the silence, casting Darcy an unamused look before speaking up. "We should probably get going. I think they're closing the doors in a little while."

The rest of the group - aside from Loki - quickly murmured in agreement, eager to get away from Darcy's allusions to the bad behavior of the Norse gods, as well as the devilish smirks that she was sharing with lankier boy.

* * *

"I'm sorry about Mrs. Barnes," Steve muttered sheepishly as he opened the door to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s gym, where the dance was being held, "I know that she can be a little much, but she means well."

Peggy smiled a heartbreakingly perfect smile and let out a small giggle. "Trust me, it is perfectly fine. My mother would have been the same way if she had known that I was going to the S.H.I.E.L.D. homecoming with Steve Rogers."

"_If_ she had known?" Steve echoed, raising an eyebrow curiously.

He had been extremely relieved when Peggy had not asked him to come inside and meet her parents. Due to his limited interactions with anyone over the age of eighteen, the football player was not very good at talking to adults, especially when they happened to be the parents of someone he hoped to continue interacting with. The thought of speaking to this perfect girl's parents sent Steve's stomach sinking to his feet.

Now, however, he was beginning to wonder why Peggy had dashed out of her house before he could even ring the doorbell. At the time, Steve had allowed himself to think that she was excited for the dance. He had been relatively excited, himself. Now it was beginning to look as though she had wanted to avoid allowing her parents to see her date for the evening.

Peggy's smile softened slightly. "Oh, no, Steve, it has nothing to do with you," She assured him, as though she could read his mind, "My parents are just very intense. If they knew that I had even met you, they would invite you over to dinner and make you tell them everything about your life. Trust me, my last attempt at dating was a complete disaster because of them."

"I don't know, I think I might owe you one night of parents after you braved Mrs. Barnes and Bucky." Steve chuckled, relieved that Peggy had not been ashamed of him.

The pair approached the punch bowl, which contained one effervescent beverage or another. Steve hastened to pour the drinks while Peggy looked around, likely uncomfortable with the prospect of being surrounded by complete strangers. Steve could sympathize with that.

"I'm going to hold you to that." The perfect girl teased, accepting the drink from Steve with a sly smile.

Steve laughed, silently reminding himself to thank Bucky for forcing him to take Peggy to the dance. He could not imagine that anything could be better than standing in the crowded gym watching the most perfect smiles dance across her perfect face. He briefly contemplated whether or not it was too soon to be falling in love.

The rest of the room seemed to conflate to the point where Peggy and Peggy alone stood out. Steve could not even seem to locate his friends among the crowd. He vaguely remembered that they had all agreed to attend the dance and behave relatively well, given that they had a football game the next day.

"Steve!" The football player closed his eyes, pretending to be annoyed as Sam's voice cut through the loud music filling the spacious gym.

"That's my roommate," Steve explained in a low voice as he and Peggy turned around to face Sam, "It's probably safer just to apologize for anything that he says in advance. Also, uh, he's a terrible liar, so don't believe anything that he says about me."

Peggy laughed, the sound causing the corners of Steve's mouth to twitch into a smile. Her laugh was just as perfect as the rest of her, he decided happily.

Sam reached the pair, a wide smile overtaking his face. He quickly looked Peggy over, still grinning, before turning to Steve and offering him a high five which the blond awkwardly refused in the hopes of appearing slightly more mature than his shameless roommate.

"Now I can see why you were trying so hard to avoid the subject of your love life. Hi, Sam Wilson. Have you ever considered dating an aspiring superhero?" Sam asked with a toothy grin, outstretching his hand in Peggy's direction.

Peggy shook the boy's hand lightly before looking back at her date with a questioning smile. "Peggy Carter. I didn't know that one of Steve's friends was an aspiring superhero. I think I might have come with the wrong date." She answered, her smile turning playful as Sam and Steve both laughed.

"First my food and now my date? Wilson, is anything sacred anymore?" The football captain joked, running a hand through his hair and pretending to be exasperated.

Sam shrugged, moving to stand next to Peggy. "I guess I can't help it. Women are naturally drawn to me. Besides, you should have known that this would happen if you brought a date as beautiful as Peggy Carter to my school. This is inevitable; we were meant to fall in love and have children with sparkling brown eyes."

"You couldn't let him have even one date, could you, Sam?" Clint demanded in an amused tone, approaching the group with Natasha by his side.

Steve's eyebrows shot up on their accord. Natasha did not wear dresses very often and even when she did, they were never as form-fitting as the one that she was currently wearing. He could feel his face reddening as his heart thundered against his chest. He could not hope that Peggy didn't notice; he was positive that his reaction was painfully obvious.

"Whoa! Tasha, you look hot." Sam announced, voicing Steve's thoughts in one grossly inelegant statement. The football player shamelessly darted to Natasha's side, conveniently forgetting that the assassin-in-training could rip his arm out of its socket at the drop of a hat.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Why did Fury let you buy a ticket, again?"

"He likes me," Sam replied with a toothy grin, "but not as much as I like you in that dress. I'm starting to understand why Steve's been so nice to you all of these years. What are the chances of you saving me a dance tonight?"

Steve felt himself blush even more at Sam's tactless comment. He could feel Peggy's inquisitive eyes on him. The rest of the group had conveniently ignored the comment - Sam was always teasing Steve and Natasha about their friendship - but that only made it seem as though everyone knew that Steve had an interest in the redhead. He mentally reminded himself to kill Sam once the dance was over.

"Not as good as the chances of me breaking your hand before the end of the evening. Um, Barton, why don't we go talk to Thor? I think that Jane left him alone to answer Stark's stupid questions again." Natasha suggested, trying to guide her date away from Sam's relentless flirting and teasing.

Sam took one look at Steve's face and quickly made an excuse to follow Natasha and Clint despite the protests he was bound to receive. The football captain was radiating anger and embarrassment. Sam knew better than to get caught up in that.

Once left alone with Peggy, Steve ran a hand through his hair sheepishly. "Look, I'm really sorry about them, Sam is just -"

"Tony Stark is here?" The brunette interrupted, looking around distractedly.

* * *

"I believe that the courting process is going well this evening. How do you find my friend Pepper Potts, Loki?" Thor inquired as soon as Jane and Pepper ducked out of the gym in order to use the bathroom.

Loki rolled his eyes. "She is exactly as I had anticipated."

"I am glad to hear it!" Thor boomed, clapping Loki on the back a bit too roughly, not seeming to pick up on the sarcastic tone that saturated his younger brother's voice.

The lanky demi-god was not surprised that his brother mistook his involvement with Pepper Potts for romantic interest. Thor had the misfortune of seeing the good in others, even when the bad heavily outweighed any good left in a given individual. Worse yet, he seemed to have a soft spot for his younger brother, turning a blind eye to all of Loki's shortcomings. The dark-haired boy supposed that Thor's determined ignorance was to his advantage.

While the god of thunder continued to ramble on about the prospects of love and courtship, Loki's eyes skimmed the room in search of Tony Stark. He knew that Tony would be watching his every move throughout the evening. The genius was mad with jealousy over Loki's association with Pepper Potts. The demi-god's mouth curled into a smirk. Manipulating the most influential student at S.H.I.E.L.D. High was proving to be far too easy.

The girls reemerged as Loki finally located Tony Stark. The two boys made eye contact from across the gym. Loki smirked. Tony glared. The lankier boy so enjoyed watching mortals attempt to act on their anger. It made for such entertaining scenes.

"Is Tony staring at you again? You boys need to learn how to play nice." Pepper commented, snapping Loki's attention away from the self-proclaimed genius.

Loki turned to look at Pepper through narrowed eyes. He disliked the condescending manner with which she addressed him. She spoke to him as a mother might speak to a child. While he had not courted quite as many women as Thor - or any, for that matter - he was relatively certain that he was not supposed to be treated in such a manner.

Regardless, the demi-god needed Pepper Potts if he wished to control Tony Stark. She was a necessary evil for his intentions. He quickly corrected his glare and forced himself to smile in the most pleasant way that he knew how.

"Let us not discuss Stark this evening," He drawled, lowering his voice just an octave in order to properly charm the strawberry blonde girl standing before him, "he appears to be occupied with other matters. We should occupy ourselves with other matters as well."

Pepper's eyes dilated at the change in the lanky boy's tone. Her eyes shifted to look at Tony briefly, only to see that he was, in fact, busy talking to the girl that Steve Rogers had brought to the dance. The student body president turned to focus on her date once more, deciding that since Tony was no longer an immediate problem, she could begin to enjoy Loki's company.

* * *

"Tony." Peggy choked out as the genius approached her and her date, the golden retriever himself. Tony's eyes flicked to Steve's, a smirk sliding across his face as the football player noticeably bristled.

"Hey, Peg. Can't say that I was expecting to see you tonight. I take it that Rogers asked you?" Tony asked, glancing at Steve once more before grinning at Peggy.

The girl blushed and avoided her date's inquisitive stares. "It's nice to see you, but I think that Steve and I should probably -"

"I get it, say no more," Tony chuckled, holding his arms up, feigning resignation as he smirked at Steve, "it's always awkward when the ex meets the new hunk of meat. I'll see you around Peg. Rogers, always a pleasure."

Steve's jaw clenched. He didn't know whether he wanted to punch Tony Stark or just throw up at the fact that he was on a date with one of Stark's exes. He was baffled by the thought. Why hadn't anyone told him that he was a follow-up act to the arrogant jerk? Why hadn't Peggy said anything?

"I'm really sorry about that. I should have known better than to hope that Tony would be mature about this." Peggy sighed, sparing Steve an apologetic look.

Steve nodded, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. "So, you and Stark, then?"

"It was ages ago. I'm surprised he even remembered." Peggy responded in a clear attempt to brush off the uncomfortable moment.

Steve swallowed hard and nodded again. "Is there anyone else I should know about? Anyone else that you thought might forget about you?"

"Steve," Peggy objected, looking hurt by the accusation, "The last I checked, I do not belong to you or anyone else. I am entitled to date anyone that I like."

"You're right, you're right, I'm sorry. I'm just not used to this sort of thing," Steve murmured, feeling completely out of depth with the situation, "I, uh, I think I need a minute. Uh, excuse me."

Before Peggy could object, Steve made his escape. He darted into the crowd of students, unsure of where exactly he was going or what he was going to do.

* * *

After enduring the loud music and the biting remarks that Loki doled out so liberally for nearly an hour, Thor and Jane found themselves sitting outside in the courtyard. It was nice. They could finally hear what one another was saying, leading to more interesting conversations than what their friends were wearing and whether or not they liked the current song. The lack of dancing improved their spirits considerably as well; Jane had never been a good dancer, and Thor simply did not know any Midgardian dances.

"So there are really nine realms? Have you visited all of them?" Jane asked incredulously after Thor had told her a little bit about his life on Asgard. She wrapped the jacket that he had given her around her shoulders a little tighter as the night air caused goosebumps to erupt across her skin.

Thor smiled down at her fondly. "I have. As the future king of Asgard, it is my responsibility to become familiar with the territories I am destined to rule over. I must say, I am enjoying my stay on Midgard thoroughly. It might become a favorite of mine."

Jane smiled. "You say that now, but after you go home for winter break and see how great and advanced everything is, you'll never want to come back."

"Winter break?" Thor echoed, his eyebrows scrunching together in confusion.

"We get a month and a half-long break starting in mid-December. You might want to let your parents know before you get stranded here for the entire break." Jane explained.

Her heart stung slightly at the thought of spending a month and a half without seeing Thor. The tall, muscular blond would likely spend his break fighting battles with his strange friend Sif and meeting girls from other realms. He was likely to forget all about her by the end of the break.

"My parents have banished Loki and I until the school year comes to a close," the demi-god murmured, looking perplexed, "I must remain on Midgard during the winter break. Do you think that the dean will allow it?"

"I don't know, probably. I'm sure a lot of people stay at school over the break. Um, if you wanted, you could always come home with me over break. I mean, I don't actually go home, exactly, um, it's just, Darcy and I usually stay at my mom's loft in the city over the break. My mom doesn't mind, she's usually busy with work. There's plenty of room; it would be plenty of fun." Jane offered, her voice growing progressively uncertain as Thor stared at her with those shockingly blue eyes.

Thor smiled warmly. "That is a very kind offer, Jane Foster. Unfortunately, I have sworn to look after my brother for the duration of our stay on Midgard. I could not hope to place such a burden on you and Darcy Lewis for any period of time."

"Oh, Loki can come along too, I don't mind!" Jane chirped before she could think about what she was saying, "There's more than enough room for everyone! It could be really fun. You could see the city around Christmas time and you wouldn't be stuck in the dorms for an entire month and a half."

"Have you considered your kind offer thoroughly?" Thor asked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Loki can be very troublesome, as can I. I could not ask you to bear witness to our behavior and habits for such a long stretch of time."

"Have you met Darcy? I'm used to bad behavior and weird habits. Come on, what do you have to lose? It'll be fun."

"This is your last chance to reconsider." Thor warned Jane, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards.

"Thor, I would love it if you and Loki stayed with me and Darcy over winter break. I am not going to force you, but you are more than welcomed if you want to come along." Jane giggled, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

"Thank you, Jane Foster." Thor beamed.

* * *

"Nat, I think Steve needs you."

Natasha looked away from Clint, who had been explaining a terrible joke, to glare at Rhodey, furious that he had dared to interrupt her date. Even Sam had known better than to hang around the pair for an extended period of time. He had found some other couple to bother for the duration of the evening.

"The last I saw, he was doing just fine. I'm sure he can manage for one night without me. Go away." The redhead commanded in a clipped tone.

Rhodey shook his head a bit uncertainly. "He's in the bathroom yelling at Bucky over the phone."

Natasha sighed and rolled her eyes. "What is he saying?"

"Hell if I know." Rhodey replied with a shrug. "He isn't making much sense. All I know is that it has something to do with skipping out on his date."

"Oh, no, if Bucky is trying to convince him to end his date I'm going to kill him. I had better go talk to him." The redhead muttered, immediately walking past Rhodey with Clint at her heels.

Once the pair reached the bathroom, they both walked in without hesitation. Natasha was not in the least bit concerned about walking into the men's bathroom. Men did not make her nervous; she made them nervous. If they disliked her presence, they could find another bathroom.

They immediately found Steve leaning against the sinks in the bathroom, phone pressed to his ear and his hair tousled, as it always was after he had run a hand through it too much. It was evident that he was anxious about something; just what could have triggered the blond over the course of the evening, Natasha had no idea.

"What's the matter with you?" Clint demanded, folding his arms across his chest and raising an inquisitive eyebrow at the taller boy.

Steve looked at the pair standing before him in surprise before speaking into his phone once more. "Uh, Buck, I've got to go. Yeah, I'll be fine. Nat and Barton are here. No, that's alright; thanks, though. Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye."

He hung up the phone and glanced at his friends tentatively as he returned the phone to his pocket. Steve was not entirely surprised to see Natasha in the men's bathroom - he had seen her in far stranger places with no explanation to offer - but he couldn't quite understand why the pair had entered the bathroom together.

"Please tell me that Bucky didn't convince you to leave the dance already." Natasha snapped.

Steve's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Why would Bucky convince me to leave the dance?" He asked.

Natasha and Clint exchanged surprised glances.

"What were you two talking about while you're hiding in the bathroom? What couldn't wait until after the dance?" Natasha demanded.

"You left Peggy to fend off Sam alone." Clint added.

Steve shook his head and placed a hand over his eyes in frustration. "She dated Stark."

"What?" Natasha and Clint chorused, both of them looking noticeably thrown by their friend's dilemma.

Steve nodded. "Peggy dated Stark. They were just talking about it as if it were the most normal thing in the world, right in front of me. I thought she was perfect. Now I don't know what to think."

Natasha and Clint both frowned immediately.

"Come on, Rogers, you've got to be realistic, here. You're going to have a tough time finding a girl that Stark _hasn't_ dated. As long as they aren't dating anymore, I don't see the problem. She's hot, she likes you, and up until this point, it seemed like you were crazy about her. Suck it up, put on a smile, and go out there before Sam decides to show her that weird clover thing he does with his tongue." The shorter boy dictated, grinning and placing a hand on Steve's shoulder good-naturedly.

Natasha shook her head, taking a step to the side in order to block the door. "Barton, are you serious? Don't listen to him, Steve. If you're having second thoughts about this date, you don't have to continue it. You're a catch; you don't need to settle for someone that you can't imagine being happy with."

Steve smiled while Clint frowned. It was obvious that the taller boy took comfort in Natasha's words, while the shorter boy disapproved of them thoroughly. The redhead could not decide whose reaction she cared about more.

"What does it matter if she dated Stark? You liked her before you knew, didn't you?" The archer persisted, ignoring Natasha's narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, I did, but -"

"If she dated Stark, why would she date Steve? They're totally different people. He should date someone who knows exactly who he is and likes him because of it." Natasha interrupted, ignoring Steve's comments.

Clint folded his arms across his chest and furrowed his eyebrows. "How do you know that Peggy doesn't? Let him figure it out; you can't keep coming to his rescue every time it looks like something might go wrong. Rogers, this isn't a question anymore. Man up and deal with your date. Do what you have to do. If you need to end it, end it. If you think there's a chance that it could work, give it a shot. Don't wait for us to sort this out for you."

Having made his speech, the shorter boy pushed Steve in the direction of the door, not waiting for Natasha to put in her own argument. The redhead was always arguing with anyone who dared question what she thought was best for Steve.

Natasha glared at Clint before darting out the door after Steve, still trying to reason with him. Clint gave an annoyed huff and followed the pair, attempting to retain his cheery disposition despite the fact that nothing was going right.

* * *

"Tony Stark." Loki drawled, approaching the genius, who was currently leaning against the wall nearest the exit, observing the fun that everyone around him appeared to be having.

Tony's dark eyes immediately shifted to meet Loki's suspiciously. He had noticed the demi-god staring at him throughout the course of the evening. It had not been a lusty stare, nor had it been a disgusted stare; the genius was relatively familiar with those types of stares. The looks that he had been receiving could only be described as predatory. It was enough to cause chills to erupt down the genius' spine.

"Odinson." Tony growled, tilting his head in recognition.

Loki smirked, leaning against the wall next to Tony. "You mustn't greet me in such a cool manner. Others will begin to believe that we dislike one another. We could not afford such rumors."

Tony's mouth curved upwards slightly. "Should have thought about that before you tossed me out of a window."

"Banalities." Loki shrugged. "I would have liked to avoid the situation altogether, but you were rather persistent. You will excuse my short temper."

"Will I?" Tony questioned, his eyebrows shooting up.

"You will." Loki answered with a curt nod. "There are much more pressing matters than your little fall."

Tony snorted, looking around to see if anyone else could hear the ridiculous conversation that he was becoming involved in. "Little fall? The dining hall is on the second floor. You could have killed me! You're lucky that I was testing out some armor. You're lucky that you don't live on Earth. My mom would sue the shit out of you if you did."

"I am highly uninterested in what actions your mother would take under various scenarios. The situation is as such: you cannot do a thing to me, while I may do anything I please with you." Loki purred, his eyes surveying Tony carefully.

The genius fidgeted under the demi-god's intense stare. He did not enjoy being intimidated by something as simple as a look, but he could not help the feeling of unease overwhelming him. In one last attempt at retaliation, Tony cast his nemesis the most withering look that he could manage. Loki merely laughed.

"I can see that you are determined to make this difficult; very well. Let us discuss these matters in a more discrete venue. Would you be so kind as to invite me to your own humble residence?" The demi-god asked, arching an eyebrow as he continued to smirk.

Tony overlooked his disbelief and succumbed to his own curiosity. "My roommate'll be there."

"He will not," Loki argued, pushing open the exit door and waiting for Tony to walk through it before following the genius, "he is currently with Darcy Lewis in the girl's common area."

"Stalking Banner, too, are we? Pepper wasn't enough?" Tony grumbled, trudging in the direction of his room.

Loki rolled his eyes. "I do not stalk. Darcy sent me a text message informing me of Bruce Banner's company. As for Pepper Potts, I cannot imagine that I have exhibited any behavior that could resemble stalking. I spoke to her in the presence of friends at all times. I did not take an interest in her beyond that."

"Didn't you?" Tony challenged irritably, "Seems you took enough interest in her to ask her to the dance."

"If you are the genius that you claim to be, you should understand that Pepper Potts served as leverage; I have no interest in her beyond that. I would not recommend relaxing at this information. I may not have any particular romantic interest in her, but I am confident that she could develop an interest in me if I were to exert the necessary effort." Loki explained in an exasperated tone, following Tony into his dorm room.

The genius whirled around to look at the demi-god. "You're using Pepper to get to me? Did you ever consider, oh, I don't know, just asking if you could talk to me?"

"Your difficult behavior made for too much chance."

"What exactly were you chancing? What do you want?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "You, of course."

Tony's eyes were the size of saucers. "Whoa there, big guy. Look, I, uh, I respect the effort and I'm flattered and all, but you're not really my type. I'm sure there's some other guy at the school for you. Y'know, I heard that Sam Wilson was -"

"Stark, I am not vying to court you." Loki huffed, rolling his eyes once more.

Tony held his hands up and shook his head. "No one is blaming you, man. It happens, I get it. There's no need to be embarrassed."

Loki glowered. "Open your window for a moment."

Tony grinned. "Pushing your crush down on the playground? Really, Odinson? I thought someone as refined as you would find a more elegant way of expressing your feelings."

The demi-god folded his arms across his lean chest and took a deep breath, his eyes fluttering shut in an effort to calm himself before he tossed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most beloved genius out of yet another window.

"I do not wish to court you. I cannot express how thoroughly the idea repulses me. I have taken a special interest in you solely for your influence over Mr. Fury. I wish to exert the same amount of influence, if not more. It seems that the simplest route to attain such power is through you." The taller boy explained, his usually-smooth voice dripping with an unmistakable tone of irritation.

Tony arched an eyebrow. "What makes you think that I'm going to help you?"

"If you help me, I will surrender Pepper Potts over to you." Loki answered easily.

Tony scowled. "How do you know I won't just take her?"

"If it were possible for you do so, I would imagine that she would not have attended the dance with me." The demi-god responded cynically.

"Well, now that you've ditched her, I think I stand a pretty good chance." The genius bit back.

Loki chuckled. "I did not 'ditch' anyone, as you so crudely put it. I informed Pepper Potts of my imminent departure. She believes that I am working through any resentment you might feel towards me in an effort to create peace within the confines of our friendship. She is not completely wrong to believe so."

Tony frowned. "How exactly am I supposed to help you? You're either important to Fury or you aren't. There's really no in-between."

"You and I must forge an alliance," Loki answered simply, "while I am already a priority at this institution, I believe that aligning myself with you will give us both formidable reputations. As promised, once you have been of use to me, I will gladly return Pepper to you."

"You'll return her alive, right?" He clarified dubiously.

Loki smirked. "Yes, Stark. I will return Pepper Potts to you entirely unharmed."

Tony extended a reluctant hand. Loki stared down at it as though it were something it were something foul. The genius rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"You're supposed to shake it." He explained impatiently.

Loki's lip curled in disgust. "Why?"

"I don't really know." Tony admitted sheepishly.

Loki rolled his eyes. "You have my word. That is sufficient. Goodnight, Stark."

"Night, Loki." The genius murmured, watching the departing god with a thoughtful stare.

* * *

Steve ran a nervous hand through his hair and avoided Peggy's eyes as he walked with her to the bus stop. He had apologized to her a number of times after rejoining her in the midst of the noisy dance, but the guilt continued to eat away at the football player.

To the blond's dismay, the bus came into view before he could think of another way to phrase an apology. He stepped forward, desperation overwhelming him at the prospect of losing Peggy forever. Peggy looked at him inquisitively.

"I, uh, I guess it's probably too much to ask for you to forget what a jerk I was tonight, huh?" He murmured sheepishly, staring straight at the ground in an effort to avoid the strict look that he was sure Peggy was casting his way.

"My memory is a bit too good for that." Peggy agreed in an almost-amused tone. "I suppose you'll just have to redeem yourself next time."

Steve's head shot up. "Next time?"

Peggy smiled that completely, utterly perfect smile that sent Steve's heart hammering against his chest. He stared at her in disbelief. He could not bring himself to entertain the possibility that he had not completely ruined his chances with this perfect girl.

"You didn't think that I would let you go so easily, did you?" She laughed as she stepped onto the bus, smiling over her shoulder at the astonished football player, "You still owe me an awkward dinner with my parents."

Steve grinned. He couldn't help himself. It felt as though he was radiating joy. He was being given the opportunity to continue seeing this warm, understanding, perfect girl, despite the fact that he really did not deserve another chance.

"I swear it'll be better than this." He assured her, his voice quivering with enthusiasm. He was relatively certain that he resembled a puppy, but he could not be bothered by it. Not when Peggy Carter was being so perfectly charming.

Peggy flashed him another disarming smile.

"It had better be," She agreed with a laugh, stepping off the bus despite the driver's disgruntled protests, "Goodnight, Steve."

She planted a quick kiss on his cheek before skipping back a few steps, smiling, then hopping on the bus. For his part, Steve could only muster a lopsided grin. His mind was still processing the fact that Peggy was giving him another opportunity to impress her.

While the dumbfounded blond continued to grin, the grumpy bus driver insisted that Peggy either find a seat or find another way of returning to town. Steve beamed and blushed as Peggy smiled back at him once more before shuffling down the narrow aisle of the bus and finding a seat.

Even after the bus departed, Steve remained at the bus stop, unable to wipe the goofy smile from his face. Peggy Carter was perfect; she truly was. She was giving him a second chance after he had acted like a possessive jerk. The fact that she hated dated Tony Stark no longer mattered to him. Of course Tony had taken an interest in her - who wouldn't? Besides, she had agreed to go to the dance with Steve instead of Tony. That had to count for something.

Steve smiled to himself as he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked in the direction of the school, quietly hoping that Sam would not have any guests in the room when he returned.

* * *

"Have a good night?" Darcy questioned with a yawn as Jane and Pepper entered the common room, both of them giggling among themselves.

"Jane did." Pepper teased, nudging her blushing friend.

Darcy looked at her best friend with raised eyebrows. "Want to share with the class?"

"She and Thor disappeared halfway through the dance. After I got abandoned by my own date, I went out to find her and saw her lip-locking with a god." Pepper stated, smirking at Jane before taking a seat next to Darcy.

"Jane," Darcy gasped in a scandalized tone, "making out on your first date? What would Odin say?"

"Odin?" Jane questioned distractedly, her eyebrows furrowing.

Darcy rolled her eyes and gestured towards the book that had occupied the majority of her evening. "Odin is their dad, according to that book. Apparently he gave up an eye in order to gain ultimate wisdom. I don't think he would approve of some Midgardian harlot running around and corrupting his son."

"I am not a harlot!" Jane objected, plopping down in the chair next to Darcy.

"Hey, there's no reason to be ashamed," Darcy shrugged with a wicked smile, "I'm sure you rocked his world. Should I assume that I'll be seeing more of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s newest football superstar?"

Jane smiled guiltily. "Um, yeah, you can definitely assume that. You'll see a lot more of Thor and probably a lot more of Loki too. Especially around Christmas."

Darcy sat up quickly. "You didn't."

"Thor said that they didn't have anywhere to go for the break," Jane explained, a sheepish smile crossing her face, "and if I invited Thor, I had to invite Loki. They were just going to sit around the dorms and play board games with Mr. Coulson. It would have been cruel not to invite them."

"You just wanted to see him over the break." Pepper accused with a laugh.

Jane couldn't bit back a smile. "A month and a half is a really long time."

"No kidding; we're going to have to see Loki every day for that amount of time. Do you know what kinds of things are in this book? He has a son that is a wolf. I don't really get how that's possible, but this wolf is really giving the folks of Asgard some trouble." Darcy informed her best friend, gesturing towards her book emphatically.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Stop reading that book. You don't know if it's even true. Anyway, you like Loki. Now you have an opportunity to corner him and ask him all about the stories you've read. Maybe he'll even answer a few."

"You're telling your mom." Darcy murmured, getting up and trudging towards the staircase. "You're telling _my_ mom, too. I still can't believe that you invited those boys to spend the entire break with us after one date. I was hanging out with Bruce earlier and he seemed kind of annoyed with Tony; should I have asked him to move into our room?"

Jane rolled her eyes as Darcy exited the common room. She knew that her best friend wasn't mad about the news; Darcy loved getting a new audience to torment, especially if said audience had an entire book of potential blackmail. It was far more likely that she was dreading explaining the presence of two young men to her overprotective parents.

"So, you and Thor?" Pepper commented, arching an eyebrow and smiling.

Jane smiled, blushing slightly. "He said that he wants to court me. I don't really know what that entails, but I think I'm going to like it."

* * *

"Sort of a weird first date, huh?" Clint murmured, staring at his feet as he and Natasha sat on the sidewalk outside of the gym, neither one of them feeling particularly inclined to return to their roommates.

Natasha gave her date a sideways glance. "I think that might be a slight understatement."

"Just a slight one," Clint chuckled, "but overall, it still went better than I thought it would. That's got to count for something, doesn't it?"

"How bad did you think that tonight would be?" The redhead demanded.

Clint shrugged with a slight smile. "Two trained assassins attending a dance full of belligerently drunk teenagers with intense combat skills? How well could it have gone?"

"When you put it like that, why the hell did you ask me in the first place?" Natasha couldn't help but laugh.

Clint grinned sheepishly. "I guess I like you more than I dislike high school dances."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "How romantic."

"Says the girl who spent her entire first date babying Steve Rogers." The archer quipped good-naturedly.

"This wasn't my first date." The redhead muttered defensively.

Clint raised an eyebrow cynically. "Really, Nat? You were sitting next to me in intelligence last semester. You're not a very good liar and I got an A in the class."

"Fine," Natasha sighed, "was it really obvious?"

"You disguised it well." Clint lied, the corners of his mouth twitching into an amused grin.

The redhead rolled her eyes, but did not comment on her date's obvious lie. Instead, she focused on the subject looming over their heads, waiting to be discussed.

"You can't ask me to stay away from Steve."

Clint's smile softened. "No, I can't. I know how you guys are; Steve comes first, I get that. All I'm asking is for an hour, maybe two, where we can hang out without him, just the two of us. Is that really so hard to ask?"

"You make it sound a lot easier than it is," Natasha admitted with a small smile, "but I can try."

The archer smiled and wrapped an arm around the redhead's shoulders. "That's all I ask. Now, the night is young, everyone is breaking curfew - what do you say we go for some late-night Taco Bell?"

"When have you ever known me to turn down Taco Bell?" Natasha answered, jumping up from the ground and grinning down at her date, "Let's go. No Steve, I promise."

* * *

**Aw, my little Avengers' first dance. Sorry for the excessive amount of fluff - everyone going on a date at the same time didn't leave room for too much action. I hope that you enjoyed it regardless! As always, I appreciate any favorites/follows/reviews (especially reviews) that you have to donate to the cause. I really do read them and take them into account when I'm writing the chapters! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

"Darcy, you're not seriously wearing that." Jane commented, arching an eyebrow at her best friend.

"What's wrong with it?" Darcy demanded, looking down at her shirt in annoyance.

"There is nothing incorrect about your attire to my knowledge," Loki interjected with an amused smirk, "You look just as presentable as Jane Foster."

Jane rolled her eyes in frustration. It was the night of the biggest football game of the year - S.H.I.E.L.D. versus Jefferson High - and Darcy was wearing a Jefferson shirt. Jane wasn't even sure why Darcy _owned_ a Jefferson shirt. Loki, of course, had followed suit, thrilled to do something that might cause a bit of conflict.

"Both of you: change. Darcy, my boyfriend is a first-string on the team. As my best friend, you should be wearing something school spirit-y. Loki, you're helping Steve with the plays on the sidelines. I know that you're trying to pretend that you hate your brother, but at _least_ wear a plain shirt without the other team's mascot on it. Do you think you could both try to make tonight something other than one giant chore for everyone around you?" Jane demanded, planting her hands on her hips and staring at the pair standing before her critically.

Loki and Darcy exchanged sheepish grins. The two had grown close over the past few weeks, bonding largely over the fact that they enjoyed stirring up trouble throughout the school. While Darcy generally stuck to smaller-scale things such as pranks and jokes at the expense of others, she would occasionally assist Loki in the more elaborate pranks that he enjoyed playing on the professors at the school. They often spent time together in detention.

"I'll put a S.H.I.E.L.D. sweatshirt on, but if I end up getting warm and taking it off, I'm sure Jefferson will appreciate having another fan. They're going to need all of the support they can get." Darcy stated at length, sharing an amused grin with Loki before skipping towards the stairwell.

Jane turned to face Loki, intensifying her scowl. She had spent enough time with the demi-god to know that convincing him to do anything was a struggle. Still, she was not going to let his craving for mischief ruin what was supposed to be one of the greatest nights of the year.

The lanky boy smirked before bowing his head in acquiescence. "I will look for more appropriate attire."

Jane let out a relieved sigh as Loki wandered in the direction of his own room. There was no doubt in her mind that Loki and Darcy would find some other way of misbehaving throughout the course of the evening, but this was a start. Hopefully she would be able to handle anything else they threw in her direction.

* * *

"Going to watch Rogers play?" Tony questioned as Pepper rushed out of her office.

Pepper turned to look at the genius in surprise, but continued walking. She was running late for the game and she was responsible for the coin toss. She didn't have time to listen to Tony teasing and mocking Steve Rogers. He would have to compensate for his insecurities elsewhere.

"I don't have time for this, Tony." She sighed when he followed her.

"I know," Tony grinned, "You've got that coin toss thing, right? Are you staying for the game afterwards?"

Pepper's eyebrows furrowed. "Of course I'm staying for the game; this is the biggest game of the year and I'm the student body president."

"And Steve Rogers will be there in spandex." The genius taunted.

Pepper's eyes narrowed. "Is there something that you want, Tony?"

"There is," Tony answered easily, "although I was kind of hoping to talk to you for more than a few seconds. Meet me under the bleachers during half time."

"You're going to the game?" Pepper asked dubiously.

Tony shrugged. "I don't mind football. Besides, this is the biggest game of the year and I'm the school's most valuable asset. Halftime, the bleachers. Be there. I have something that I want to ask you."

"What do you want to ask me?" Pepper questioned automatically.

Tony smirked. "Halftime, Potts."

Having made his mysterious request, the genius afforded Pepper one last smirk before sauntering down the hallway in the opposite direction. Pepper glanced after him, her mind racing with potential questions that her ridiculous sort-of employer could ask her. After allowing herself to imagine even the most unrealistic scenarios, she shook her head and reminded herself that she had much more pressing matters to attend to. Tony probably just wanted to ask her to run a budget for the next semester anyway.

* * *

"Agent Romanoff, where is your school spirit? You're supposed to wear my practice jersey to the game. Does tradition mean nothing to you?" Clint Barton teased as his redheaded girlfriend came in to view sporting her usual dark attire.

Natasha glanced around the field, where the rest of the football team was practicing. "Well, _Agent Barton_, I think that you should consider yourself lucky that I am even going to the game at all. You would not believe the amount of homework I have for my public speaking course."

"Not enough to keep you away from the celebratory party after the game, though." The archer clarified with a toothy grin.

Natasha folded her arms across her chest. "I don't know if you're going to win the game or not; you look like you've been slacking off on practices. You're losing all of your muscle definition. If you're not careful, even Sam will be able to beat you at sparring."

Clint rolled his eyes and turned to look at Sam skeptically. When he did so, his eyes met Steve's. The captain sighed and planted his hands on his hips before approaching the pair, leaving Thor in charge in his absence.

"Nat, am I going to have to start banning you from the practice fields?" The taller boy asked good-naturedly, staring at his friends in an all too familiar combination of exasperation and amusement.

Natasha smirked back at Steve. "I think that would only be more work for you and the security guards. You should really be trying to make Barton behave; he's the one that's slacking off during your practice."

"I think that you have a bit more control over him than I do," Steve chuckled, sparing his teammate an amused grin before meeting his redheaded friend's eyes once more, "tell him to run drills like everyone else."

Clint raised a challenging eyebrow at Natasha. She smirked back at him. Steve was no longer such a sore spot in their relationship; Natasha had been able to avoid mentioning and/or contacting her best friend when on dates with her boyfriend, while Clint accepted that when the aspiring soldier happened to be present, Natasha would always take his side.

True to form, the redhead smiled up at Steve before smirking at Clint. "Go run drills like everyone else."

"You heard the lady, Hawk." Steve laughed triumphantly.

Clint rolled his eyes. "Go to hell, Rogers. At least let me talk to Tasha for a minute without a lecture on acting like everyone else. If I was acting like everyone else, I'd be doing that Nordic ritual over there."

Steve whipped around to see Thor instructing the rest of the team to hop and chant in a strange combination of cries and yelps. The captain groaned and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. It was clear that he had been working through the Asgardian prince's abnormal behavior for some time now.

"Thor, you're supposed to be running passing drills." Steve groaned, trudging over to where the grinning demi-god was encouraging his teammates.

Clint turned to face Natasha with a lopsided grin. "I paid him twenty bucks to start a ritual every time that Rogers interrupts us."

"You're an idiot." Natasha muttered, rolling her eyes in an attempt to seem unamused. Her mouth betrayed her as it curved into a small smile, "Anyway, it was a waste of money. I really do have to go. Peggy is _insisting_ that I sit with her. She still thinks that I'm trying to steal her boyfriend."

"Now who would ever suspect that you and Steve are anything but good friends?" The archer inquired, attempting to feign shock and failing miserably.

Natasha rolled her eyes once more and punched her boyfriend's shoulder before he could duck away. "You know that Steve and I _are_ only good friends. Peggy just keeps showing up at really bad times."

"Like the time you were getting the cobweb out of his hair?" Clint asked in an amused tone.

"If you boys dusted every once in a while, there wouldn't be any cobwebs getting stuck in anyone's hair." Natasha bit back.

Clint chuckled. "Funny how these things always wind up being my fault."

Natasha shrugged. "Not funny, but definitely true. I've got to go; I'm already five minutes late and the last thing I need is for Peggy to come looking for me. If she found me within a ten mile radius of Steve, she would probably think that something happened. Good luck with your game. Try not to get killed."

"That's always my main goal." Clint agreed, affording Natasha one last grin before jogging over to the rest of his teammates, who were beginning to march in the direction of the locker rooms.

* * *

"Steve!" The football player whipped around upon hearing his name. The owner of the voice was unmistakable.

"What are you doing back here, Buck?" Steve questioned, glancing back at his team before grinning at his best friend.

Bucky waved off Steve's question. "Just checking in with you before we slaughter your team. Wanted to make sure that you wouldn't take the loss too hard."

Steve chuckled. "Not at all. Although, I saw the drills that you were running earlier. If you really think that you or your second string QB can run the ball past our defense, you are even dumber than I thought."

Bucky shook his head, pretending to be offended without succeeding. "Punk." He muttered, outstretching his hand towards Steve with a small smile.

Steve glanced down at the hand before shaking it and pulling his best friend in for a quick hug.

"Jerk." He mumbled, clapping Bucky on the back twice before releasing him and straightening his shoulder pads the best that he could.

"I guess I'd better get back to my team. I don't trust them to sit on the bench unsupervised. You have no idea what kind of stupidity those guys are capable of." Bucky said, glancing over his shoulder in the direction of the exit before grinning at Steve.

Steve nodded. "I should get back to my guys, too. I don't worry so much about their intelligence as I do their ability to follow directions. You've met Barton, you know what I'm up against."

Bucky laughed, acknowledging Steve's difficult teammate. He turned to exit the hallway, undoubtedly anxious to get back to his team. Steve watched him for a moment before turning around to return to his own team, hoping that Thor had managed to keep Clint out of trouble in his absence.

"Hey," Bucky's voice forced Steve to turn around again, arching an eyebrow at his friend as he did, "Peggy's out there."

Steve grinned back at his best friend. "Thanks."

With that, the two football captains quickly returned to their respective teams, stomachs filled with bricks at the thought of facing off against one another.

* * *

Pepper tapped her foot anxiously as she watched the clock count down the minutes until halftime. It really had been incredibly cruel of Tony to leave her hanging in suspense for such a prolonged period of time. While she should have been paying attention to her teammates' efforts at winning the important game against Jefferson, she was distracted by her constant guesses at what the genius might ask her.

Tony had recently formed a friendship with Loki Odinson seemingly out of the blue - could the question have anything to do with that? Pepper wouldn't put it past Tony to rent her organizational services out to his friends, new or old. On the other hand, it might have something to do with the vacation that Rhodey had been pestering the genius about for weeks. Pepper had been asked to make arrangements for Tony's vacations before; he probably wouldn't think twice about asking her to do it again.

"Are you okay? You've been acting jumpy all night." Jane commented, eying Pepper curiously.

Pepper nodded vigorously. "I'm sorry; Tony just told me that he had something to ask me at halftime and I've been trying to figure it out all game long. You don't think he would ask for my kidney, do you?'

"Wouldn't put it past him." Darcy chimed with a shrug.

Jane rolled her eyes. "If he asks for your kidney, just say no. I think that he would probably ask for Bruce's first, anyway. What if he's actually asking you something nice, like on a date?"

"A date?" Pepper couldn't help but laugh at the thought, "Tony would never ask me on a date. I think it's more realistic to worry about my kidneys. Oh, a few seconds until halftime - I'd better go meet him. Keep your phones on; I'm going to text you if he tries to harvest my organs."

Jane and Darcy laughed as Pepper stood up and brushed off her pants.

"Good luck!" Jane called after her.

Pepper threw a smile over her shoulder as she skipped down the steps leading to the bottom of the bleachers. As she ducked under the bleachers and looked around for Tony, she allowed herself to think about Jane's earlier suggestion. Tony _had_ been acting strange lately. Well, stranger than usual, anyway. If he were to ask her on a date - a purely hypothetical scenario, of course - it would explain some of the stranger behavior.

Using the same, completely ridiculous hypothetical scenario, Pepper wondered how Tony would ask her on a date. He was not a particularly romantic boy. He would probably get someone else to do it. Or, more likely, he wouldn't even ask. He would simply call his parents' car around and assume that she would be thrilled to tag along. She couldn't help but laugh to herself at the thought. For a self-proclaimed playboy, he really didn't know anything about women.

If, for some reason, she did decide to go along with him, where would he take her? He wouldn't dare bring her to the same restaurants that he brought every other girl. Even Tony had to know better than that. After all, Pepper was so different from any of the other ridiculous girls that he had dated. Maybe he would take her to the documentary on bees that she had been telling him about at lunch. Better yet, maybe he would take her somewhere where they could just talk for hours on end. The pair had not had much time to talk one-on-one this semester. Pepper had almost begun to miss her ridiculous discussions with Tony.

"Potts." Tony's voice brought Pepper back to reality. Her heart gave an involuntary thump against her chest. She briefly contemplated the reason for the strange feeling in her stomach, but shrugged it off as she approached the dark haired boy.

Pepper made an effort to scowl as she crossed her arms. "Why are we standing under the bleachers in the middle of a football game, Tony?"

Tony shrugged, looking around as his mouth curved into a grin. His brown eyes gleamed with impish amusement. "I never could resist just a touch of drama. Don't you think this is better than texting or asking you after dinner?"

Pepper's eyes widened slightly. She couldn't help but believe that Jane had been right; Tony was going to ask her on a date. All of the signs were pointing towards it. He was beating around the bush - something that Tony Stark _never_ did - he was acting mysterious, and he was acting as though he was about to ask an extremely important question while already knowing the answer. He would not have acted nearly as smug if he were about to ask Pepper to donate her kidney.

"What is it that you're asking me?" She questioned, her voice shaking slightly. She blinked, slightly taken aback by the nerves threatening to overwhelm her. When she had considered the idea of Tony asking her out, she had never felt nervous, only amused. She had imagined that she would give him an entirely obnoxious answer to compensate for the bad behavior that she had experienced throughout the course of their strange friendship.

Tony smiled and sauntered closer. Pepper felt herself blush and couldn't help but feel relieved that it was too dark for Tony to notice.

"Now, I don't want you to feel obligated to say yes. I know that I've taken advantage of the fact that I got you into S.H.I.E.L.D., but this is completely your call." He clarified.

Pepper's heart stuttered in her chest. This was happening. Tony Stark was going to ask her out. She was not prepared for this moment at all. She was vaguely aware that she was going to say yes, although she could not imagine that agreeing to go on a date with him would be a good idea. Her mind began racing with the explanation she would offer her friends come Monday morning. Darcy would never forgive her for breaking their alliance against the genius.

"Okay, what am I saying no to?" She asked quietly, hoping that she sounded a lot calmer than she felt.

"Alright, I'm just going to come out and ask," Tony said, nodding his head and causing Pepper to internally panic even more than she already had been, "do you want to come on vacation with me over Christmas break? I could really use someone there to help me schedule things."

* * *

Bucky's team was holding up well against the S.H.I.E.L.D. High football team. They were losing, of course, but they were actually providing the opposing team with a challenge; something the members of the successful team relished.

Steve grinned at Bucky as he took the field. The blond was thrilled to see that his best friend was showcasing his exceptional football skills in such an intense game. He might have even been playing a better quarterback game than Steve. College scouts would definitely be hounding Bucky after the game. They would if they had any common sense, anyway.

"Hey Cap, if you're not too distracted by your boyfriend, the guys are wondering which play you wanted to run." Clint commented with a smirk.

Steve's face reddened as he returned his focus to his mouthy wide receiver. "What? Why are you worried about the defense? Shouldn't you be getting your shoulder looked at?" He responded quickly, his eyes narrowing as he studied the ice pack resting on his friend's shoulder.

Clint shrugged dismissively. "You know I'll be fine. I've had worse in my sparring classes. I've had worse on my dates. Uh, Thor was asking Sam, who asked me to relay the message. Apparently he's gone through every play in the book."

Steve's eyebrows furrowed as his eyes swept the sidelines. Bucky was smart; he would recognize any play that they'd already run. Steve wanted to see Bucky succeed, but he wanted to challenge him. His crystal eyes suddenly fell upon a lanky figure sprawled across one of the sideline benches.

"What about Thor's brother? He wrote half the plays in the book. Ask if he's got anything else off the top of his head. If he doesn't, just run the Red Scare play. They might recognize it, but by the time they do, they'll be scrambling to get the ball to the left of the field."

Clint quirked an eyebrow at the captain. "Are you sure about that, Steve? That kid can be pretty ruthless when it comes to strategy."

Steve continued to watch Loki. The boy turned and met Steve's stare with a smirk, as if he knew exactly what the two boys were discussing several feet away.

"Get him to run it by Thor. I trust his judgement. If Thor feels comfortable playing it, then it's fine by me. Now go; we're going to get penalized if this delay lasts much longer." Steve barked.

Clint rolled his eyes but quickly strode to Loki's side, explaining the situation and handing him a microphone that would allow him to speak to Thor from the sidelines.

Steve watched as Loki analyzed the players on the field, speaking slowly, as though he were playing a game of chess or planning some military strategy. The kid was good. He was creepy, patronizing, and almost always disrespectful, but damn if he didn't know how to create flawless strategies.

Without any sign of delay, the defense immediately began to organize themselves. Steve nodded towards Loki and Clint. Thor had accepted the play. Good. That was good, right?

As Steve began to wonder just what Loki had told his older brother to do, the whistle blew and the players began to move.

What happened next seemed to occur in slow motion for Steve.

Thor dove over two of the players guarding Bucky and immediately tackled the dark-haired boy to the ground.

Ouch. That didn't look good.

Wait.

No.

Bucky wasn't moving.

Why wasn't Bucky moving?

Thor hadn't hit him that hard, had he?

The other players were taking a knee.

No, no, no, no, _no_.

Steve immediately rushed onto the field, ignoring the objections and scolding that the coaches from the other team were casting his way. The paramedics were setting up a stretcher. Why had Thor accepted this play? Why had Steve trusted Loki to come up with an ethical play without being there to tell him when he was taking things too far?

"Bucky. C'mon, Buck, you need to get up." The blond pleaded, plopping down at his best friend's side, scanning his face for an indication that he was even slightly conscious.

No dice.

The paramedics put Bucky on the stretcher and mentioned something about taking him to the hospital for a cat scan.

Mrs. Barnes was offering to take Steve to the hospital with her. When had Mrs. Barnes come onto the field?

Steve suddenly found himself sitting in a white-walled waiting room, absently watching children dance and giggle around the massive fish tank on the opposite wall.

"Steve, honey, you need to eat." Mrs. Barnes was saying, shoving a bag of fast food in Steve's direction.

He stared down at the food blankly. He hadn't eaten since having dinner before the football game. He glanced at the clock. Had it really been five hours since he had suited up? His stomach was informing him that he was not hungry, but his brain was reminding him that under any other circumstances, he would have been devouring the contents of the greasy bag and then searching for more food.

"Thanks, Mrs. Barnes, but I'm really not hungry right now. Maybe I'll go down to the cafeteria a little later. Do you, uh, do you know when we'll get to see him?"

Mrs. Barnes shook her head, following Steve's gaze to the door where Bucky had been rushed to intensive care. "The last thing the doctors told me was that he was going to need some time after waking up. They're trying to make sure he hasn't permanently damaged anything."

That was news. When had Mrs. Barnes talked to the doctors again?

After a few minutes - or, hell, maybe it was a few hours - Mrs. Barnes turned to Steve, who was still clutching the fast food bag, despite the fact that the contents had undoubtedly gone cold by this point, and rested a hand on his back. "Honey, are you going to get in trouble with your school? I remember Bucky saying something about a curfew."

Steve shook his head impassionately. "There's an exception for family emergencies."

Mrs. Barnes nodded slowly, watching the boy as he gazed at the aquarium, his expression smooth and unreadable, as though there wasn't a single thought running through his mind. Deciding that it was best not to push the boy, she made an excuse to stand up and approach one of the nearby nurses once more. Steve hardly noticed her absence.

It felt like an eternity before Steve was finally cleared to see Bucky. The doctors had protested as he darted in after Mrs. Barnes had had her own private visit. Mrs. Barnes had warded the concerned doctors and nurses off by insisting that Steve was family; Bucky's brother, to be exact.

Steve exhaled heavily at the sight of his best friend lying in the hospital bed, numerous tubes and casts attached to every inch of his body. It felt as though he had been punched in the gut. How could he have allowed one of his own teammates to do this to his best friend? Had he really cared about winning that much?

"Buck?" He whispered, perching on the side of Bucky's bed, waiting for the dark-haired boy to open his eyes.

The doctors had said that he was awake, hadn't they?

"Who's Buck?" Bucky asked in a small voice, his eyes remaining closed.

"What? Buck, I - "

Bucky's eyes snapped open. He looked livid. Why did he look so upset? Did he blame Steve for what had happened to him on the field? Steve blamed himself. He opened his mouth to apologize, but was immediately cut off.

"Who the hell is Buck?" Bucky demanded through gritted teeth.

Steve quirked an eyebrow, his own eyes widening as he studied his best friend's enraged expression. He had never seen Bucky so angry before. This wasn't a joke, nor was this a momentary lapse in memory. He really didn't remember his own nickname. Steve couldn't hide his horrified expression.

Noticing the look on the blond's face, Bucky's bottom lip quivered slightly.

"You are," Steve explained, continuing to watch Bucky with an alarmed expression, "don't you remember your own name? Are you...I mean, do you remember anything?"

Bucky continued to stare back at Steve, looking devastatingly similar to a little boy who had gotten lost after separating from a parent.

"I know you." He finally muttered in a small voice, continuing to stare at Steve as though he were a walking puzzle.

Steve forced himself to smile. "Of course you do, buddy. You're my best friend." He tried to maintain a cheerful tone despite the lump forming in his throat. Why did Bucky have to look at him that way? No one should have to see their childhood friend in such a pitiful state.

The doctor entered the room as Bucky stared at Steve, still not completely sure of who he was talking to. Steve turned to meet the doctor's gaze pleadingly, desperate for information on how to restore Bucky to his former state of mind.

"That's enough visiting for the evening, son. Mr. Barnes needs some rest." The doctor stated, casting a stern look in Steve's direction.

"Can I visit him tomorrow? Or, er, later today?" The blond inquired, glancing back at Bucky before returning his focus to the doctor.

The doctor sighed. "We'll discuss that with Mrs. Barnes outside. For now, let's let James have some peace and quiet."

Steve hung his head, sliding off of Bucky's bed and trudging towards the door under the strict supervision of the doctor.

"Hey, wait," Bucky objected. Steve turned around hopefully, only to be forcefully propelled towards the door once more by an impatient doctor.

"Wait," Bucky persisted, his voice still audible through the heavy hospital door, "Wait, I know him. I _know_ him!"

Steve gritted his teeth but continued walking. He would have to follow the doctor's orders, for the time being. They knew what was best for Bucky. After what had happened on the football field, Steve wasn't so sure that he could say the same about himself.

"Oh, honey," Mrs. Barnes crooned the moment she saw Steve, pulling him into a warm hug. "Did you talk to him? Did he say anything?"

"He didn't remember anything. Does he...I mean, you know…" Steve mumbled, casting a glance in the direction of Bucky's room.

"Right now, the doctors say he's exhibiting signs of amnesia. They're not sure how long it's going to last. It might be temporary. We'll know more about it when they get the CAT scan results back." Mrs. Barnes explained softly.

Steve's shoulders slumped. He nodded his head but didn't say a word. What could he say? His best friend didn't remember a thing because Steve had been too lazy to come up with an ethical play for Thor.

He returned to his seat, gazing at the aquarium thoughtfully.

Mrs. Barnes didn't disturb him; she knew it wouldn't have done the boy an ounce of good.

Steve was almost grateful when she declared that she would be going home to take a shower and brush her teeth. He didn't know if he could stand her sympathetic looks and reassuring remarks much longer. He just wanted to be alone.

He stared straight ahead of him for an indeterminate amount of time, allowing his mind to create worst-case scenarios involving Bucky. He didn't look up as he heard the heavy waiting room door open and close loudly, nor did he so much as blink when he heard a familiar voice speaking to a nurse in a venomous tone.

Seconds later, a large brown bag was shoved onto his lap.

"I'm not hungry, Nat." Steve muttered.

"I don't care whether or not you're hungry. I snuck out past curfew, rode on a bus full of drunks and hookers, walked around this terrible town at two in the morning in order to pick up each and every one of your favorite foods, and lied to my boyfriend and your girlfriend in order to get here without being ripped to pieces. You are eating." Natasha countered, her eyes narrowing.

Steve turned to look at the redhead and couldn't resist cracking a smile. "Did you get apple pie?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Of course that's the part you're concerned with. Yes, I got apple pie. What, do you think I just met you yesterday?"

The blond smiled and made a noncommittal noise before digging into the large bag and extracting a container of mac and cheese. Natasha really had gone out of her way in order to recover his favorites. He lowered his eyes slightly. He didn't deserve to be treated this well, not right now.

"Steve. Eat. Bucky is going to be okay." Natasha reminded him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Steve shook his head, forcing himself to meet his friend's eyes. "You don't know that."

"Yes I do," Natasha answered easily, "I know that everything is going to be okay, and I know that if you don't eat the food that I nearly got mugged over, I will break both of your arms."

Steve sighed before opening the container of mac and cheese and taking a few reluctant bites. He knew better than to argue with Natasha, especially when she thought that she knew what was best. She watched him with a satisfied smile.

Once he had finished the container, he went straight for the apple pie, ignoring the rest of the food for the time being. Natasha smiled and smoothed down Steve's hair, which had gotten messed up at some point during the stressful night.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked gently.

Steve shrugged and wiped off his mouth with the back of his hand. "He doesn't even remember his own name."

He hadn't meant to disclose that information. He had meant to convince Natasha that he was fine, to brush off her concern in the most polite way possible. He should have known that she would extract the information from him one way or another.

"Have you talked to him?" Natasha questioned, glancing in the direction of Bucky's room.

Steve nodded grimly. "He had no idea who I was. He looked so lost. It's all my fault, Nat. I was the one who told Loki to make the play. I shouldn't have trusted him, I shouldn't have -"

"Shut up."

Steve looked at the redhead in surprise. "Huh?"

"Did you have any reason to believe that Bucky couldn't handle anything that you threw at him?" Natasha asked, removing her hand from Steve's hair and staring at him inquisitively, "Did you think that he was some kind of china doll who would break if you started to challenge him a little bit?"

Steve shook his head, staring at his shoes. "No, but -"

"Shut up, Rogers. I'm trying to cheer you up and you are going to let me. You let him have his dignity. You treated him like you would have treated any other quarterback; that was what Bucky wanted and you know it. Loki took advantage of the position that you were put in. This is entirely his doing." Natasha asserted.

"I should have known that Loki would do something like this. I didn't even listen to the play. I told him that if Thor was okay with it, I was okay with it."

"What's wrong with trusting your teammate?" Natasha persisted.

Steve stared at her incredulously before gesturing around the waiting room emphatically. "_This_. This is exactly what's wrong with trusting my teammate! This is the textbook definition of what is wrong with trusting my teammate." He responded angrily.

Natasha stared at him for a moment before cracking a smile. "Steve, why don't we go back to S.H.I.E.L.D.? You always get dramatic when you're tired."

"I'm not leaving," Steve responded stubbornly, "Bucky wouldn't leave me, and I'm not leaving him."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "If you're not going to leave your boyfriend, then at least take a nap here. Come on, I'll make sure that no one steals your food or your helmet."

"You're going to get in trouble if you stay here. Mr. Fury is taking attendance at the assembly tomorrow." Steve reminded the redhead.

She shrugged. "So I won't be there. Someone has to stay and take care of you."

"I don't need anyone to take care of me." Steve mumbled.

"Yes you do. Now go to sleep."

"I'm not tired." The blond argued.

"I'm not negotiating." Natasha responded.

Steve groaned and rested his head against the wall behind him. He glanced at Natasha and couldn't resist smiling when he saw the satisfied smirk on her face. Everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed to think that she was a terrifying force who could destroy anyone who crossed her path - and she was - but she was much more than a dangerous element. She was also an almost excessively dedicated friend.

"Close your eyes." Natasha instructed, electing to ignore the smile that she was receiving from her best friend.

"I'm not tired." Steve grumbled, reluctantly obliging and closing his eyes.

"Then just sit there with your eyes closed." Natasha replied with a smirk.

"Hm." Steve murmured.

* * *

"You know that she's with him, don't you?" Sam remarked, tossing a football across his dorm room in Clint's direction.

"Yeah, I know," Clint sighed, catching the football and launching it towards Rhodey, "I didn't really think that she was suddenly interested in having a girls night with Peggy Carter."

Sam raised an eyebrow at his teammate. "Why didn't you say something?"

Clint shrugged. "I don't know, what am I supposed to say? Steve is her best friend, she should be with him right now. If I try to talk to her about lying, she'll just lie more. It's easier to just let this one go."

"What if they fall in love?" Sam challenged with a hint of a smile.

Clint and Rhodey both glared at their smiling teammate.

"They're not going to fall in love." Rhodey responded matter-of-factly.

"Probably not; Steve has no game," Sam agreed with a laugh, "but let's say that he pulls a miracle and Tasha decides that she can't live without him. What are you going to do?"

Clint shook his head with a scowl. "I wouldn't do anything. You know what, we're not doing this, Wilson. I trust Natasha and Steve. If they were going to fall in love, they would have done it at some point in the past three years. I'd be more worried about leaving Steve alone with an apple pie. What about you, anyway? Too worried about my love life to focus on your own?"

"I was thinking about talking to Darcy Lewis." Sam answered quickly, looking thoroughly insulted at the very idea that his love life did not exist.

Rhodey and Clint both burst out into laughter. Neither of them had seen Sam so much as greet Darcy in the hallways. The boys tormented each other ceaselessly. It was ridiculous for Sam to think that either Clint or Rhodey would let his ridiculous statement pass without any teasing.

"_Darcy Lewis_? Does she even know that you exist?" Rhodey asked, shaking his head as he laughed.

"Yes, she knows that I exist," Sam shot back in an annoyed tone, "she thinks that I am the finest single man in this school. She thinks that you both are dicks."

Clint glanced at Rhodey and shrugged. "I believe the second part."

"She is into me, I'm telling you!" Sam insisted.

"I thought that you were going to talk to that foreign transfer, Peter. What happened, did you strike out there, too?" Rhodey commented, leaning back and staring at Sam appraisingly.

Sam shrugged. "Apparently he has a girlfriend back home, wherever that is. That normally wouldn't bother me, but he's also sort of a weird dude. He always carries that 8-track player around and talks to trees. So, Darcy Lewis it is."

"Peter dodged a bullet." Rhodey laughed, shaking his head and leaning against the wall.

Sam grinned. "Hey, it worked out to Darcy's advantage."

"Is that so? Does she know that she's got that advantage yet?" Clint challenged, arching an eyebrow.

"Of course she does." Sam responded quickly.

Clint grinned and snatched his phone off of his desk. "Let's find out; I'll text her and let her know that she is being courted by our own Sam Wilson."

He typed the passcode into his phone to unlock his home screen while Rhodey attempted to hold back Sam. Sam struggled against Rhodey's grip, trying to launch himself at Clint to prevent the text from being sent. Clint chuckled, ignoring Sam's objections and arguments as he scrolled through his phone.

Suddenly, the smile faded from his face.

"Uh oh," He murmured, staring down at his phone.

"What's the matter? Steve and Tasha running off to elope?" Sam taunted from across the room, an amused grin sliding across his face as Rhodey released him.

"No, uh, Peggy just texted me and asked if Steve was still at the hospital."

"So?" Rhodey questioned.

Clint sighed and rested his head against his forehead. "So, Peggy is about to go visit Steve and Nat in the hospital."

Sam and Rhodey stared at each other in confusion.

"I don't get it. Why is that such a bad thing?" Rhodey inquired.

"Well," Clint responded with yet another sigh, "I'm taking a stab in the dark here and assuming that Peggy has no idea that Nat is there with him. Not sure she's going to be entirely thrilled."

* * *

Natasha was flipping through her copy of Beowulf - the latest English assignment - when a heavy weight fell on her shoulder. She looked over and smiled when she saw that during the course of his waiting-room slumber, Steve's head had fallen on her shoulder.

If this had been anyone else, she would have been extremely annoyed. She disliked people invading her space, but Steve was an entirely different story. She had had a soft spot for the boy ever since she had seen the look of terror on his face when she pulled him away from the girls' bathroom. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Natasha knew that she didn't need to protect Steve anymore - he was almost eighteen years old, a legal adult - but it was much easier for her to pretend that she clung to the football player for his sake. That way, she didn't have to admit that she needed him just as much, if not more, than he needed her. They were a family. A strange, dysfunctional, not-quite-blood-related family.

At the sound of the waiting room opening and closing, Natasha looked up from the blond hair tickling her nose, fully expecting to see Mrs. Barnes wearing that knowing smile that she always sported around the assassin-in-training and her best friend. Instead, however, she was faced with the sight of an outraged Peggy Carter.

Natasha immediately placed a finger over her lips. She understood that she and Peggy were about to have an argument, but that was no excuse to wake Steve up. The boy had been through enough with Bucky. He didn't need to be woken up to a jealous girlfriend as well.

She gestured towards the door, indicating that she would meet Peggy outside to continue their argument. Peggy folded her arms across her chest, clearly not enjoying the prospect of being treated like an imposition. Natasha ignored the irritated girl and glanced at Steve, wondering just how she was going to get his head off of her shoulder without disturbing him.

She shifted her shoulder so that Steve's neck was bent in an extremely uncomfortable way, hoping that he would move on his own accord. Steve groaned in complaint, but shifted his head so that it was propped up against the wall behind him and resumed his relatively peaceful sleep.

Once she could move without waking her best friend, Natasha slid out of her chair and proceeded to exit the waiting room with Peggy at her heels. As the door shut behind them, Peggy folded her arms across her chest and arched an expectant eyebrow at Natasha.

"Was there any reason to lie to me about having a girls night with some of your S.H.I.E.L.D. friends, or are you just used to it at this point?" The brunette demanded angrily, unable to help feeling hurt and betrayed.

Peggy had watched Steve and Natasha interact for weeks now and was desperately trying to understand their friendship. Steve clearly thought that Natasha was attractive; he had practically been _drooling_ at the homecoming dance - something that Peggy had elected to ignore on the off-chance that she had been mistaken. This was more than a petty attraction, however. The pair was nearly inseparable. Not even Natasha's boyfriend could drag her from Steve's side for longer than an hour or two. Steve was painfully similar; if Peggy _did_ manage to convince him to leave Natasha's side for the evening, he would be glued to his phone, as though he expected her to desperately need his help after being separated for a whopping twenty minutes.

Natasha glared back at Peggy. "If I had been honest and told you that I was going to be here, would you have let Steve go without any kind of argument or warning? I'm not trying to trick you or break up your relationship, contrary to what you might think. I was just trying to do what's best for Steve."

"You're _always_ trying to do what's best for Steve. Don't you think that he can decide what's best for himself? This isn't normal, you know. You can't just dictate every aspect of his life. It isn't fair to him, it isn't fair to me. I don't want to sit around and worry that you're going to suddenly decide that I'm not what's best for my own boyfriend." Peggy objected immediately.

"I'm not dictating every aspect of his life, I'm _helping_. If I hadn't been here, he wouldn't have eaten, he wouldn't have slept, and he probably would have been thinking of new ways to sneak into Bucky's room. I don't see you doing any of that." Natasha bit back, refusing to allow Peggy Carter to berate her for her friendship.

Peggy shook her head in frustration. "I had to wait until my parents fell asleep to sneak out of the house. We can't all go to S.H.I.E.L.D., where the only thing we have to worry about is the occasional detention. I know that you think that you're better for him, Natasha, I really get that, but I'm trying. I am trying so hard to be there for Steve, and you have got to take a few steps back and let me show him that. I can't keep doing this; showing up only to see that you've already taken care of him. No one could possibly stay in a relationship like this. Something has to change. It just has to."

"Steve is the only family I have," Natasha murmured, her heart sinking at the prospect of losing Steve, "when I came to S.H.I.E.L.D., I didn't have anybody. Neither did Steve, not really. He had Bucky back in town, but he was this gangly, awkward, friendless creature at school. I caught him struggling to read the different bathroom signs - we have all kinds of creatures at S.H.I.E.L.D. - and stopped him from walking into the girls' bathroom. After that, we sort of adopted each other. He's like my security blanket and I'm like his. This is the only way we've managed to survive the past three years."

"I know that, Tasha," Peggy allowed in a soft voice, "but this isn't your freshman year anymore. Neither of you are alone; I think you both have more friends than I could even name, and more importantly, you have Clint, and Steve has me. I'm not saying that you should stop being friends. I just think it might be best for everyone if you sort of relaxed a little."

Natasha bristled. She had been taking a major risk in telling Peggy exactly how she felt about Steve. She _hated_ telling people how she felt about Steve. If she had learned anything in her classes - as well as her life - it was that identifying one's own point of weakness was a dangerous move. She had explicitly stated that Steve was all that she had in an effort to avoid losing him, and Peggy had simply brushed her off. The posh British girl was asking her to give him up anyway.

"I don't think you get to decide what's best." The redhead snapped.

Peggy's eyes narrowed. "And you do?"

"Seeing as I've known Steve for longer than a month, I would say so. Why don't you just go home? I'll tell him that you stopped by. I'm sure he'll appreciate the thought." Natasha responded coolly.

"Why don't you go home? I think you've probably sat with him long enough. It's my turn." Peggy shot back.

The girls continued to bicker for a number of minutes, their voices escalating as they got angrier with one another. Natasha could not believe that Steve's girlfriend could be so insensitive. She had expected him to date someone that was even kinder than he was; perhaps a Disney princess. Peggy could not believe that Natasha felt entitled to control Steve's life regardless of what he wanted. The redhead was acting utterly absurd.

As they approached screaming volume without making any progress, Natasha finally shook her head and stopped talking. Peggy quirked an eyebrow at her, but remained silent.

"We can't do this right now. We both care about Steve, and right now, he's hurting. He needs us; _both_ of us. Let's just get in there and try to help him through this. You don't have to like me - I definitely don't like you - but we have got to at least pretend to get along for Steve's sake." Natasha decided, glancing back at the waiting room door.

Peggy looked unsure for a moment. She was reluctant to go along with anything Natasha decided on principle, but this particular statement did make sense. Steve's best friend was in the hospital; he did not deserve the added burden of sorting out an argument between Natasha and Peggy. The brunette nodded slowly.

"Fine," She muttered at length, "but only for Steve. Come on; he's probably going to wake up soon."

"Probably not. Steve sleeps like a hibernating bear." Natasha shrugged as they walked towards the waiting room doors once again.

Peggy turned to look at Natasha severely. The very last thing that she wanted to hear was the redhead's extended knowledge on Steve's sleeping habits, especially when they were supposed to be pretending to get along.

Natasha winced and nodded at the look. "Sorry."

The girls exchanged a quick look of understanding before returning to the waiting room.

* * *

**Whew, what a chapter. Writing it was sort of a pain. Regardless, I hope you all like it! As always, I appreciate any favorites/follows/reviews that you have to donate to the cause. I really do read the reviews before writing chapters; more often than not they influence at least a few things. Anyway, happy reading. I hope that you enjoy chapter five! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Before anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. could cause any more trouble, winter break had rolled around the corner. The dorms were quickly emptied out as students rushed to catch their cars, their trains, or their flights, each of them eager to escape the school and the work that came along with attending the school.

Unsurprisingly, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts were the first to flee the campus. Tony had gotten his parents to write a note excusing him from his last classes of the day and had somehow managed to convince Fury to allow Pepper to leave with pair dashed to the parking lot and leapt into the car that Tony's parents had sent before any of the school's administrators could change their minds.

As the car started towards the airport, Pepper relaxed against the leather seat, avoiding Tony's eyes at all costs. She could hardly believe that she had agreed to spend her entire winter break with the same boy that had once called her at three in the morning to contemplate the possible existence of a cat-dog. She had a feeling that she would be spending the whole of the vacation chasing after Tony and attempting to keep each of the girlfriends that he accumulated from meeting one another - something she was not particularly interested in doing after realizing that she might have developed feelings for the ridiculous genius. Pepper had a feeling that the upcoming month and a half was going to feel like a much longer period of time.

"So, what's on the itinerary first, Potts? Did you want to go to the beach? Get something to eat? Visit a few shops? My parents will probably be at a conference when we get to the hotel, so it's your call." Tony stated after a few moments of silence, grinning at Pepper expectantly.

Pepper could feel her face reddening. She had been hoping that she would be able to hang out with Tony without acting weird ever since discovering her crush on the genius under the bleachers at the S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. Jefferson football game. Unfortunately, she had been sadly mistaken. She was always blushing and struggling to come up with the witty comebacks that had come second-nature to her before the complication of infatuation had entered her life.

"It's your vacation, shouldn't you choose?" She questioned, looking out the window in order to avoid Tony's bright smile.

He shrugged, not seeming to notice his friend's strange behavior. "I've been to the Bahamas a bunch of times; it's nothing new to me. If you let me choose, we're probably just going to sit in the hotel and build things out of parts from the mini-fridge and the lamps."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Why don't we get cleaned up, maybe take a nap if we're tired from the flight, and then look around for a little bit? I've never been to the Bahamas, but I've heard it's beautiful."

"Pepper Potts," Tony gasped in a forced scandalized tone, an amused grin crossing his face as he held a hand over his heart, "are you suggesting that we nap together before exploring a tropic island? We are on vacation with my parents. What kind of guy do you think I am?"

Pepper's eyes narrowed. "I don't know if you want me to answer that question."

The driver chuckled from the driver's seat while Tony grinned in amusement. He did not mind Pepper's good-natured ribbing. If she truly disliked him as much as she pretended to, there was no way that she would have agreed to spend a month and a half with him, not even for a free trip to the Bahamas.

"Alright; so, nap and then exploring? That sounds like a decent enough plan." Tony nodded to himself thoughtfully, "You could always nap on the plane, you know. First class seats are pretty comfortable, especially when you've got yours truly sitting next to you. You could always use my shoulder as a pillow if you needed to."

"Ugh, Tony," Pepper complained, pretending to be revolted at the very idea, "I don't sleep well on planes. Even if I did, I think it would be incredibly inappropriate to put my head anywhere near your shoulders. As I recall, you have a handful of girlfriends just waiting for you back in the city."

"And you don't have a boyfriend waiting for you. Why is that, anyway? Why didn't things work out with Rock of Ages? You seemed very comfortable at homecoming. I'm sure Jane would have invited you to spend Christmas with the Odinsons if you had asked." Tony commented, raising his eyebrows at the strawberry blonde sitting next to him.

Tony knew exactly what had happened between Pepper and Loki; Loki had hardly left his side since the night of the homecoming dance. He just wanted to hear Pepper talk about it.

Pepper's eyes narrowed. "I don't have to have a boyfriend waiting for me in the city. I'm perfectly happy being single. You give me enough trouble as it is. Who in their right mind would throw yet another teenage boy into the mix?"

"Not Pepper Potts, apparently." Tony laughed, shaking his head.

"Exactly." Pepper agreed triumphantly.

* * *

"Thor, what are you doing?" Jane asked in an exasperated tone as she walked into the room that would be Thor's room for the next month and a half.

The demi-god was crouching on his dresser, appearing to be gearing up to leap across the room to land on his bed. Loki and Darcy were sitting on the floor, backs against the wall, watching Thor with matching amused smirks.

Thor turned to look at Jane with a sheepish smile. "Darcy Lewis did not believe that I could leap from this wooden box to the bed, despite Loki's efforts at assurance. I meant to prove it to her."

"Okay, why don't you get down from there?" Jane sighed, placing a hand on Thor's muscular arm as he climbed down from his perch, "Shame on both of you for putting him up to this. He could have broken everything in the room if he fell. Thor, why don't you help me with some of my homework? Professor Ronan gave me an assignment on the speculation of the most perfect human form. You've experienced more cultures than I have; you might be able to make a few suggestions."

Thor nodded with a smile. "I would enjoy nothing more than assisting you in your academic endeavors."

"I still don't know why you took Ronan," Darcy muttered, standing up and brushing off her pants, "he's batshit crazy. He and Prof Schmidt are Nazis."

"Is that so? I believe I have Professor Schmidt for the history of magic this upcoming semester. Will he promote his genocidal ideals throughout the course?" Loki responded, quirking an eyebrow.

Jane rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. "No one is a Nazi, Darcy. No one is going to be talking about genocide in any class, Loki. Professor Ronan is just interested in bioengineering and Professor Schmidt is just sort of...eccentric. Um, anyway, Thor, why don't we work on the assignment in the kitchen. I think these two might want to be alone anyway."

Jane winked at Darcy, knowing that it would make both her best friend and Loki totally uncomfortable, before guiding Thor out of the room. Thor beamed at Loki, clearly catching the innuendo in his girlfriend's voice.

Darcy rolled her eyes while Loki glowered at his retreating brother.

"I would not court a Midgardian if my return to Asgard required it." The lanky boy sneered.

Darcy's nose wrinkled in disgust. "I wouldn't date you if the world depended on it. I think I'd rather date Professor Ronan. He might be genocidal, but at least he has some seriously broad shoulders."

Loki looked thoroughly insulted. "My shoulders are quite broad. They are the shoulders of a prince."

"They're the shoulders of an awkward teenager boy." Darcy snorted.

"Bring me a mirror," Loki demanded immediately, "I must have shape-shifted during the course of this conversation. It is the only possible explanation for your opinion of my shoulders."

"They're short little shoulders. You have no shoulder game." Darcy taunted, realizing with amusement that despite his calm, cool exterior, Loki was just as vain and ridiculous as the rest of the boys at S.H.I.E.L.D.

"I am the victor of the shoulder game." Loki insisted emphatically, crossing the room in order to stand in front of a mirror.

Darcy bit back a smirk and followed him over to the mirror. "You know, I think that Thor might be able to give Ronan a run for his money when it comes to shoulders. Thor has some seriously broad shoulders."

The lanky demi-god turned around, eyes ablaze and mouth hanging ajar. He was outraged, plain and simple. He had lived the majority of his life on Asgard, where only Odin and Frigga were permitted to point out his shortcomings. Even then, they had never drawn attention to any physical shortcomings he might have. They certainly had not mentioned anything about his shoulders.

"_Thor_ is not the champion of the shoulder game." He asserted in an uncertain tone.

Darcy shrugged with a small smile. "In my opinion, he's pretty close to winning."

Loki glared at Darcy for a moment before storming out of the room. Not wanting to miss a moment of the demi-god's ridiculously vain behavior, Darcy followed at his heels, unable to help letting out a laugh or two as she did so. Loki didn't seem to notice her amusement.

"Brother," The lanky boy growled, stomping into the kitchen where Thor was explaining the various kinds of people he had met across the realms to an awe-struck Jane, "you must remove your shirt immediately. I am to be the sole winner of the shoulder game."

"Is this a Midgardian game? You must explain the rules so I may play as successfully as you." Thor answered immediately, his eyes lighting up at the prospect of a more interesting activity than helping Jane with her project.

"Darcy, did you come up with a game just to get them to take their shirts off?" Jane demanded in an unsurprised, yet frustrated tone.

Darcy bit her lip to keep from laughing and shook her head. "All I said was that Prof Ronan has pretty serious shoulder game and Loki made it a competition."

"You said that Thor stood a better chance at victory than I did." Loki snarled.

The brunette made eye contact with Jane and smiled sheepishly. "I mean, he _does_."

Jane held up her hand, momentarily silencing Darcy's amused comments, Thor's questions, and Loki's outraged objections. She knew the silence wouldn't last long and used the opportunity to think about what she wanted to say first. Clearly she had comments for each and every one of her temporary roommates, but one in particular was more important than the others.

"Darcy, have you really been checking out Professor Ronan's shoulders?" She asked incredulously.

Darcy rolled her eyes with a slight smile. "He's a hottie with a body."

"He's _blue_." Jane responded in disbelief.

Loki afforded his brother's girlfriend a sharp glare. "Have you a quarrel with that particular color?"

Jane looked at each of her guests, shifting uncomfortably as she did so. "No, I um, I don't have a problem with...um, hey, have you guys ever heard of Monopoly?"

* * *

"So, what were you thinking about ordering, Buck?" Steve asked in the most casual tone he could muster, setting down the menu that he hadn't actually read in years in order to smile at Bucky.

The dark-haired boy stared down at his menu with furrowed eyebrows. "Uh, the honey mustard chicken sandwich looks pretty good."

Steve's eyebrows shot up before he could think to regulate his facial expressions. Bucky noticed.

"That's wrong, isn't it?" He mumbled, his eyes dropping down to the menu in disappointment.

Steve forced himself to smile. "It's not _wrong_, Buck, I just didn't know that you liked mustard."

Bucky nodded to himself and continued to stare at the menu, clearly exerting a sizable amount of effort into selecting the correct meal. While his best friend was distracted, Steve allowed his mind to wander.

It had been weeks since Bucky had been released from the hospital and his memory still hadn't come back. He was picking up old habits with some effort - although neither Steve nor Mrs. Barnes felt particularly obligated to remind him of his habit of swearing like a sailor - but he still struggled with simple things, like ordering his favorite meal in the diner that he and Steve had gone to since they were kids.

"Maybe I'll have spaghetti," Bucky ventured timidly, his eyes flicking up to meet Steve's hesitantly.

Steve nodded, a strained smile crossing his face. "Yeah, their spaghetti is pretty good. You know what else is good here?"

Bucky looked up eagerly. "What?"

"Their buffalo chicken pizza." Steve replied, hoping that hearing the name of his favorite food would cause Bucky to remember something.

Instead, the dark-haired boy arched an eyebrow and curled his lip.

"Really?" He questioned dubiously.

Steve nodded enthusiastically, but carefully avoiding coercing Bucky into rediscovering his favorite food. "Yeah; I think that I'm going to order one. You go ahead and get the spaghetti. You can just try some of my pizza. That way, if you don't like it, you're not stuck with it."

Bucky nodded hesitantly.

"Alright, I guess I'll go put our orders in. Want anything to drink?" Steve asked, collecting the menus on the table and sliding out of his seat.

"Water?" Bucky responded uncertainly.

Steve smiled and nodded. At least Bucky still drank water like a man straight out of the desert. He approached the counter, grinning at Daisy, a waitress who had worked at the diner since he and Bucky were ten.

"Hello there, Mr. Rogers. The usual order?" Daisy questioned as soon as the blond approached the counter.

Steve glanced over his shoulder at where Bucky was frowning at his phone before turning to face Daisy once more and shaking his head.

"Actually, the order's a bit different this time," He replied, scratching the back of his head nervously, "can we get an order of spaghetti and a large buffalo chicken pizza, with two waters?"

Daisy afforded him a strange look, but wrote down the order all the same. "That will be twenty thirty-seven."

"Great, thanks," Steve smiled, pulling out his wallet and surrendering three ten dollar bills, "keep the change."

He returned to the table, hoping that Bucky hadn't decided to text random numbers in his phone once again. The last time he had done that, he had inadvertently texted his cousin, thinking that she was instead one of the girls that he had taken on a date throughout the course of his romantic career. While Steve couldn't resist laughing, the mess that Bucky created had made for a rather uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinner.

Luckily, Bucky had learned from his mistakes and had decided against contacting anyone with an unfamiliar name. Once Steve returned to the table, the dark haired boy promptly began to question his best friend about each name on his contact list, hoping to learn more about his friends and family. Steve was happy to oblige, hoping that having such a conversation would jumpstart Bucky's memory.

They continued their conversation until their food arrived in Daisy's hands. The waitress smiled as she set the food down, assuming that Steve had ordered the spaghetti while Bucky had ordered the pizza, as he always had in the past.

It would have been a fair assumption under almost any other circumstances. Bucky's undying love for buffalo chicken pizza had been made known after he had tried his first slice back in the second grade. Once he had sampled the pizza, he had insisted that he and Steve go to the diner at least three times a week so he could feed his growing addiction. Steve, who had always been easily persuaded by his best friend, had happily obliged.

His passion for buffalo chicken pizza was not the only reason for Daisy's assumption, however. Bucky _detested_ spaghetti; anyone who had been around him while there was pasta present knew this. His mother had forced him to eat a bowl of spaghetti shortly following the stomach flu when he was seven years old, and the result was to be expected. Ever since spending that fateful night on the bathroom floor, hunched over the phone and informing Steve that he would rather be dead, Bucky had vowed never to eat spaghetti again.

Steve waited until Daisy walked away before switching out their food, hoping to avoid any questions that the waitress would likely have. Bucky was already sensitive about the fact that others knew more about his life than he did. He didn't need to know that Daisy was included in that category.

As predicted, Bucky took one bite of the spaghetti before curling his upper lip in disgust and setting down his fork. He looked at Steve in utter indignation. Steve couldn't help but laugh in response.

"You knew that I didn't like spaghetti. Why didn't you stop me?" The dark-haired boy demanded.

Steve chuckled. "You've got to find some things out for yourself, Buck."

"Punk." Bucky murmured, swiping a piece of pizza off of Steve's plate.

"Jerk." Steve countered with a grin.

* * *

"Barton, what are you doing? We didn't come here to pet stray dogs." Natasha hissed, grabbing her boyfriend by the arm and dragging him away from the dog that he seemed to have befriended.

Clint rolled his eyes, affording the dog a small smile before looking at Natasha in complete exasperation. "What else am I supposed to do? Shadowing agents is boring. They've just been sitting around reading files for the past two days." He grumbled.

"Maybe they got the wrong information from D.C.," Natasha responded with a shrug, "anyway, they won't be reading files forever. We're obviously in the middle of Budapest for some reason. I don't want to miss something because you're busy petting every dog in the city."

"Relax; we're not missing anything. Look, I've got a baby monitor set up in the room. See? Oh." Clint stared down at his phone, his cheeks reddening.

Natasha rolled her eyes as she glanced at the blond's phone. The only thing visible on the screen was a piece of paper taped to the baby monitor reading '**rookie move, Cliff**'.

"Cliff," Clint scoffed, stuffing his phone back in his pocket, "they know my name, they just want to act cool and pretend that they don't. C'mon, let's go make sure they don't leave without us."

Natasha nodded her agreement and started out for their hotel. After a few steps, she realized that her boyfriend was not following her.

"What are you doing?" Her voice was dripping with irritation.

Clint broke eye contact with the dog only long enough to afford his girlfriend a sheepish smile. "I think he wants to come with us."

"You're not smuggling a dog into the hotel." Natasha stated, folding her arms across her chest.

"Why not?" The blond objected immediately. "It's like a test. If we can sneak this dog into the hotel room, we're gonna be great agents, right? Besides, it would be cruel to leave him on the streets. You can practically see his ribs."

Natasha sighed and rolled her eyes. "If we get caught, I'm going to tell Kate and Rumlow that this was entirely your fault."

"It is entirely my fault," Clint shrugged with a grin. "I guess we'd better get going. Come on, Pizza."

"Pizza?" Natasha echoed, raising her eyebrows as Clint and the dog began walking towards the hotel.

"Problem?" Clint countered with a small smirk.

The redhead shook her head with an amused smile. "No, not at all. I think Pizza is an incredibly sophisticated name."

"Glad you approve." Clint chuckled, reaching down to pat his new friend's head as the trio wandered down the streets of Budapest.

* * *

Three nights before Christmas, Maria Hill sat in her house, curled up with her father's newest literary obsession and a mug of hot chocolate containing just a drop of peppermint schnapps, when there was suddenly a knock on her door.

Knowing that her parents were in the basement wrapping presents, Maria sighed and approached the door, hoping that it wasn't yet another crowd of untalented carolers. It was growing increasingly difficult to pretend that she appreciated their efforts.

When she opened the door, she was surprised to see Bruce Banner standing on her doorstep, face scrunched up in an effort to hold back tears, shirt tattered, and a backpack slung over his shoulder.

"Bruce? What are you doing here?" She asked, unable to hide her surprise.

She and Bruce were not exactly close friends. She had seen him in passing, of course, and sat at the same lunch table as him due to mutual friends, but Maria could count the number of times that she had actually spoken to the mop-headed boy on one hand.

Bruce grimaced and dropped his stare to the ground. "I'm really sorry for showing up like this; I don't want to bother you, it's just that, no one else is home for the break and I can't get into the dorms until tomorrow."

"Right, yeah, please, come in. Is everything okay?" Maria asked, stepping aside to allow Bruce into her house. She was relatively sure that her parents wouldn't mind a guest.

Bruce stepped into the house, casting Maria a grateful look as he did so. He almost resembled a puppy. Whatever his reason for being here was, Maria was positive that it had been something bad.

"Uh, not really, no. I, uh, how much do they tell you in the office? Have you heard anything about me?" He asked, taking a seat on the couch that Maria had gestured to. Maria sat down in her own chair and wracked her mind for everything that she had heard about Bruce while working in the office.

"I don't hear very much about students; Mr. Coulson tries to avoid that. I think I've heard one of the secretaries talk about anger medication after you were mentioned once. Is that it?" Maria asked hesitantly, hoping that if Bruce did have anger issues, discussing them would not trigger any anger.

Bruce nodded, his eyes flicking up to meet Maria's hesitantly. "Uh, that's sort of it. I think it might be easier just to show you. Mr. Fury would probably destroy my phone if he knew that I had this video, but I like watching it sometimes. It reminds me what I'm capable of."

Maria nodded slowly, taking the phone from Bruce in order to watch the video that he had pulled up on the screen. To her surprise, it had nothing to do with the boy whatsoever. It was just a video of a giant green monster tearing apart a number of buildings. Maria assumed that it was a scene from a movie.

"Is this a joke?" She questioned, looking around for any sign of Tony Stark.

This seemed like the type of prank that the genius would concoct. The only unlikely factor was Bruce. The mop-headed boy rarely partook in his roommate's high-jinxes. He was much too afraid of Nick Fury.

Bruce smiled at Maria. It was a sad smile, one of understanding and sympathy.

"I'm sorry. I know that this is a lot to spring on you. I promise, I wouldn't be here if I had anywhere else to go. I just, uh, can I crash in your backyard for the night or something?" Bruce asked uncertainly.

Maria looked in the direction of her backyard before turning to look at Bruce with furrowed eyebrows. She stared at him for a moment, unsure of whether or not she had heard him correctly. She could not comprehend the concept of_ anyone_ sleeping outside in the middle of a New York winter.

"You can't sleep outside, Bruce," She objected immediately, "it's way too cold out there. I think you would die within two hours. Just let me talk to my parents. I'm sure they'll understand."

Bruce's eyes shifted to the ground. "I wouldn't die."

"What do you mean?" Maria inquired.

"The other guy won't let me." Bruce answered, nodding towards the phone.

Maria stared at him blankly. She looked down at the video of the green giant then looked back up at Bruce in disbelief. She could not believe that Bruce had anything to do with the monster. The boy sitting before her was much too mild-mannered.

"Bruce, I don't…"

The mop-headed boy sighed and met Maria's eyes once more. "Just wait until the end of the video. You'll see."

Maria watched the video, still riddled with doubt. To her surprise, at the very end of the video, the giant staggered on its feet until it collapsed in the middle of the rubble it had created. Moments later, it shrank down into a boy; a boy that looked very similar to Bruce.

"What…?" Maria didn't know exactly what she wanted to ask.

Bruce took a deep breath. "I don't know what happened; something went wrong while I was working in a lab over the summer. We were trying to replicate this serum from the 30's, but I guess we did something wrong. Every time my blood pressure rises to a certain level, the big guy comes out."

"That's why Fury is so worried about your temper." Maria mused.

"I have it under control most of the time, but tonight I just…" He sighed, "I can't go back home. It isn't safe."

"Do your parents know about this?" Maria asked, glancing at the basement stairs and biting her lip, hoping that her own parents would not come up the stairs at this inopportune moment. She still had to think of a lie to explain why Bruce needed to stay over. She had the sneaking suspicion that her mother would not be too keen on the idea.

Bruce squirmed in his seat, looking thoroughly agitated. Maria couldn't help but worry that he was going to turn into the green monster in the video. Her parents would not be pleased if her sort-friend from school destroyed their house three days before Christmas.

"They can't know," He answered, sounding noticeably distressed, "They can't. My father he would...well, he already thinks that I'm different. He'd…" Bruce's shoulders slumped as he stared at the ground and took in big gulps of air. His entire body trembled. Maria sat up nervously.

"Okay, okay, I'll think of something to tell my parents. Why don't you go upstairs? My brother is off at college; you can sleep in his room for the night. You look like you could use some rest." Maria said hastily, leaping out of her chair and gesturing in the direction of the stairs.

Bruce looked around nervously. "Are you sure?"

Maria nodded, despite the fact that she was not even moderately sure. In reality, she was the very opposite of sure. She was very much_ un_sure. She was asking a boy that she barely knew - a boy who could apparently turn into a green monster at any given moment - to stay in her house for an indeterminable amount of time. She had no idea what she was going to tell her parents, nor did she have any idea how she was going to explain the situation to Pepper, Jane, and Darcy, who she would without a doubt text immediately after Bruce had left the room.

"Thank you." Bruce exhaled, radiating relief as he relaxed slightly.

Maria quickly showed Bruce to her older brother's vacant room, pointing out the bathroom on the off-chance that the boy wanted a shower, then left the mop-headed boy to his own devices. Judging from his behavior, he needed some time to relax and recover from whatever had happened to him prior to his arrival.

"Did I hear the doorbell?" Her mom mused as she wandered upstairs for a glass of water.

Maria felt her face redden as the sound of the shower starting filled the room. Her mom glanced in the direction of the bathroom before casting Maria an inquisitive stare.

"Is someone here?"

"Um, yeah," Maria replied, avoiding her mom's eyes as she searched the kitchen for some food that Bruce might appreciate, "my friend from school, Bruce, is here. He, um, he's just having a really tough time and I might have told him that he could stay here tonight."

This confession earned Maria a stern look from her mother. She knew that her mother would not particularly love the idea of a male classmate staying over, but it couldn't be helped. Bruce needed help and it seemed that Maria was the only one who could help him.

"Maria…"

"Mom, he's staying here. I think he's afraid of his parents, all of his friends are away for the break, and he looks like he's been through hell and back. He can stay in Beck's room; he won't cause any trouble and it would mean the world to him. It's the right thing to do." Maria asserted, taking on the voice that she used whenever Tony Stark was giving her any sort of trouble.

Her mom sighed and looked in the direction of the bathroom once more before letting out yet another sigh. "I think there are some spare clothes in Beck's room."

Maria smiled. "Thanks mom, I promise you won't regret this."

"I had better not. And clean your room; you don't want your classmates to know that you're a slob."

Maria rolled her eyes. "I'll work on it, mom."

* * *

"Merry Christmas, Potts!" Tony crowed, leaping onto Pepper's bed and jumping up and down.

Pepper - now shaken awake - rubbed her eyes and scowled at the dark-haired genius shaking the entire bed.

"Get off my bed," Pepper complained, swatting blindly in Tony's direction, "it's not even light outside. What time is it?"

Tony paused to look at the clock on the side table. "Uhhh, five. Come on, I just finished your present. You've got to open it. Besides, my parents aren't here to tell me to wait until nine-thirty. What's stopping us from opening all of our presents early?"

"Sleep." Pepper replied grumpily, rolling over to face the wall instead of the enthusiastic boy crouching next to her.

"You can sleep after presents." Tony whined.

Pepper groaned and rolled out of bed. She didn't bother worrying about her lack of makeup or her ill-fitting pajamas. It was five in the morning. No level of infatuation could have caused her to care about her appearance even a marginal amount.

Tony grinned and immediately dragged her in the direction of the common area. Pepper regarded the insane amount of Christmas decorations with a small smile, briefly contemplating Tony's passion for the winter holiday. Her attention was immediately diverted to a massive box sitting in the middle of the room.

Noticing Pepper's widening eyes, Tony grinned. "That one's yours."

"Please tell me that it's not another life-sized stuffed bear. I still haven't found a place to put the last one." Pepper teased as she approached the present.

Tony rolled his eyes. "You were supposed to put it in your room. Anyway, this is even better than a giant bear. Just open it."

"Mmm, I don't know. Maybe I should save the biggest present for last." Pepper reasoned, aiming a smirk in Tony's direction.

Tony huffed impatiently and moved to open the present for Pepper. She slapped his hand away and slowly tore the wrapping paper away, intentionally drawing out the process. Tony tapped his foot and made annoyed sounds from behind her, but Pepper paid little attention to it.

Once the present was fully unwrapped, Pepper cocked her head and stared at the robotic contraption sitting before her. Leave it to Tony Stark to build her the most complicated Christmas present in the universe.

"What is it?" She finally asked.

"What is it?" Tony echoed in disbelief, "It's an assistant. Look, it's voice activated. Just tell it to do something."

"Um…" Pepper looked down at the wrapping paper lying on the floor, "Pick up all of this paper?"

The robot immediately snapped into action and picked up the paper. Once it had accumulated all of the paper in its metallic arms, it turned its head in Pepper's direction.

"What would you like me to do with this paper, Miss Potts?" It inquired.

Pepper turned to look at Tony in surprise. "That's your voice."

"I know!" Tony agreed gleefully, "I thought it'd be a welcomed change. Y'know, instead of letting me boss you around, you can tell Tony Jr. what to do."

Pepper arched an eyebrow. "Tony Jr.?"

Tony shrugged and kicked the carpet bashfully. "Or whatever you want to call it."

"I think Tony Jr. should be just fine," Pepper smiled, observing the robot fondly. The idea that Tony had put so much thought and effort into her present instead of simply walking into a store and buying something expensive made her heart pound against her chest.

"You know, he should, uh, he should help you out, maybe get you some free time," Tony commented, watching Pepper carefully, "Maybe you'd even have enough free time to go out to dinner with me some time."

Pepper looked up at Tony in surprise. Her heart was now thumping and faltering almost painfully in her chest. She had no idea whether she ought to be coy or straightforward about her feelings towards the genius. She wasn't even positive that he wasn't joking. Besides all of that, there was still the matter of his numerous existing girlfriends.

Before any of this could be addressed, a heavy knock interrupted the almost-romantic moment. Tony scowled at the door in annoyance while Pepper shifted to hide behind her Christmas present, relieved that she had been granted thinking time.

Tony stomped over to the door, only to find Happy, his chauffeur and guardian for all intents and purposes, standing on the other side.

"What?" He demanded as Happy pushed his way into the room.

"Tony, I need to talk to you." Happy stated, sparing Pepper a quick look before focusing on the annoyed boy in front of him.

"About what?" Tony snapped, his brows furrowing.

"Your parents," Happy replied, his eyes casting downward, "they've, uh, they've had an accident."

* * *

"Look at them." Darcy muttered, rolling her eyes as she watched Thor and Jane exchange presents, beaming at each other as they did so. Loki snorted and curled his upper lip in a similar expression of disgust.

"They are exceptionally repulsive. Is there nothing you could do to distract Jane?" The lanky demi-god asked, leaning back against the wall behind the pair.

Darcy tilted her head back until it hit the wall and let out a hopeless sigh. "Nope. They're in love. There's nothing that can be done about it. Look, he's talking about the stars again. They're going to end up married before the break is over."

"Would you strangle me with this garland?" Loki inquired, nodding towards a nearby bundle of garland.

"Not worth the murder charge," Darcy responded with a shrug, "Hey, you know what would distract us from this?"

"What?" Loki demanded eagerly.

"We could talk about the horse thing."

Loki's eyes narrowed. "No."

"Oh, come on!" Darcy laughed, nudging Loki's shoulder with her own, nearly spilling the hot chocolate that the demi-god was clutching as she did so, "you've been dodging the question for months. I just want to know if you really gave birth to a horse. Why is that so difficult for you to answer?"

Loki arched a cynical eyebrow. "Do you really believe that I am capable of giving birth to a horse?"

Darcy took a moment to size the demi-god up. She had spent a large amount of time with Loki over the break, largely due to the fact that Jane was too wrapped up with her new beau to spend more than an hour at a time with her best friend. Darcy had been forced to spend time with Loki instead, and had spent the majority of that time tormenting him about the details of Norse mythology.

"Yeah, probably. I mean, your hips are sort of narrow, but you have that whole magic thing going for you. It's possible." She replied thoughtfully.

Loki rolled his eyes. "I did not give birth to a horse."

"Then why is there an entire story about it? Who could even think of creating such a story? No one could possibly be that creative." Darcy reasoned with a small smirk.

"Sif could." Loki muttered darkly.

"Sif?" Darcy echoed questioningly, "You mean that girl that transferred from Asgard with you and Thor?"

Loki nodded. "She is an exceptionally spiteful warrior. Thor and I both may have angered her on her birthday many years ago, resulting in the spread of the tales that you have read from that absurd book of yours. Very little of it is true; that which is true is exceptionally dull. It would serve you well to simply ask me about Asgard if you are particularly interested."

"Would you tell me the embarrassing stuff along with the cool stuff?" Darcy questioned skeptically.

"I would tell you any 'embarrassing' tales of Thor's youth that you would like to know. My own youth, however, was free of any embarrassing occurrences." Loki answered promptly.

"I don't believe you." Darcy challenged.

"You have no way to disprove me." The lanky boy reminded her, rolling his eyes.

"I think I might." Darcy argued with a small smirk.

Loki raised his eyebrows, unable to resist a challenge. "And what might that be?"

"Hey Thor," Darcy raised her voice to draw the attention of her best friend and the muscular blond sitting by her side, "got any embarrassing stories about Loki? He told me that you tell them the best."

Thor glanced from Darcy to Loki, who looked utterly horrified. A wide smile crossed the older Odinson boy's face. He clearly did not believe Darcy's lie, but seemed delighted at the prospect of embarrassing his younger brother regardless. Darcy smirked at Loki triumphantly.

"Has he told you of his trip to palace's treasury?" Thor inquired, his eyes lighting up with amusement.

Loki let out a hopeless groan. Darcy's smirk widened.

"He has not. I would be delighted to hear all about it!" She chirped, gesturing for Thor to come closer in order to tell the tale without speaking louder than usual.

Thor leapt up from his seat by the fireplace and extended a hand to help Jane out of her seat. Once the pair was standing, they approached Darcy and Loki, who was now glowering at Thor as though he were committing some heinous crime by telling childhood stories. Thor quickly sank down to sit on the floor across from Darcy. Jane did the same, although she sat across from Loki and afforded the lankier demi-god an apologetic smile as she did so.

"So, what happened during Loki's trip to the palace's treasury?" Darcy asked, leaning closer to Thor eagerly.

Thor chuckled, the sound rumbling deep in his chest as Loki covered his eyes with his hands in embarrassment.

"Well, he did not quite understand how to operate the doors yet. You see, they are made of a very complex system of locks and codes. He had used his tricks and talents to get into the vault, but he could not get _out_ of the vault. He remained in the vault for a number of days before our mother realized that he was not simply playing one of his many tricks. It is worth mentioning that there are no bathhouses in the vaults…" Thor began, the corner of his mouth twisting into a smile as Darcy and Jane dissolved into giggles.

* * *

"Are you sure that your parents won't mind you spending Christmas with us?" Steve asked in a low voice, eying Peggy nervously as she followed him and Bucky towards Mrs. Barnes' car.

Peggy waved off her boyfriend's concern with a small smile. "I told my dad that I was volunteering at the soup kitchen with some friends."

Bucky let out a laugh. "A few months and you've already turned her into a liar. Steve Rogers, you are a terrible influence."

"Oh, he's not so bad." Peggy smiled, taking Steve's hand in hers.

Steve smiled back while Bucky made gagging noises beside him. Peggy rolled her eyes as Steve punched his best friend in the shoulder, both of the boys laughing all the while.

Steve had initially been concerned that Bucky would object to Peggy's presence under the circumstances; they had never brought anyone along for their annual Christmas tradition, girl or boy, and as Bucky's memory had not fully returned, it was not the optimal time to be changing a tradition. Regardless, Steve had been unable to refuse when Peggy had asked to tag along on their Christmas day adventure.

Now, however, it seemed that he needn't have worried at all. Bucky and Peggy were getting along as well as he could have expected them to. Bucky seemed happy just to do something that he had enjoyed prior to the football accident and Peggy seemed thrilled just to be included.

"So where exactly are we going?" Peggy questioned, peering at the GPS from over Steve's shoulder as he drove Mrs. Barnes' old Ford Escape down the all-too-familiar street.

"The middle of nowhere." Bucky answered as he cast Peggy a wide smile, evidently pleased to know more about this particular trip than someone who had not recently lost their memory.

"The middle of nowhere?" Peggy echoed, arching an eyebrow and staring at Steve through the rear view mirror.

The blond grinned and punched Bucky, who had maintained his traditional position in the passenger's seat despite Peggy's presence. "You're making it sound like we're bringing her out into a corn field to murder her, Buck. We're just getting out of the city for a while; Bucky and I've been going to this camp site for years. You'll love it; we'll make a fire, roast some marshmallows, then swing into this little town on the edge of the camp site for some hot chocolate. Sound good?"

"That sounds very good." Peggy allowed with a wide smile.

"He's leaving out the part where we throw the newest tag-along into a lake." Bucky added with an impish grin.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Bucky."

Bucky shrugged, still grinning. "Alright, Steve'll probably jump in before anyone can get thrown into the lake. The guy's reckless, you know. I used to have to pull him off of kids during recess."

Steve laughed before stopping short. His foot spasmed on the gas pedal as he slowly turned to look at Bucky. Bucky looked as though he had been struck over the head with a giant rock. Both of the boys stared at each other with wide eyes for a few seconds.

"Steve, the road." Peggy reminded her boyfriend, lunging forward to hold the steering wheel.

Steve shook his head and blinked for the first time in a number of seconds. He returned his focus on the road - or at least, part of his focus - while working through the event that had just occurred.

Bucky had mentioned something that had happened way before the football accident. Steve hadn't mentioned that particular part of their past and judging from the look on Bucky's face, neither had Mrs. Barnes. Bucky had remembered something on his own.

"What is the matter with you two? You look like you've seen a ghost." Peggy commented, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

She had no idea what Steve reminded Bucky about on a day-to-day basis and therefore could not know that Bucky's previous statement contained part of a remembered past. She assumed that the boys were acting strange about something else; they did seem to have a lot of inside jokes.

"Bucky, did you just…?" Steve asked, unsure of how to phrase the question racing around his mind.

Bucky nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

Peggy rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed huff. "What are you guys being so dramatic about? Is this a prank? Steve, I told you that if you pranked me I would show up at your dorm with an artillery of nerf guns."

"This isn't a prank, Peggy. I, uh, I think Bucky just remembered something." Steve replied, allowing his eyes to rove over his best friend once more before returning to the empty road ahead of them.

Peggy's eyes widened. "Really? Oh, wow, that's amazing! Um, do you remember a lot?"

Bucky shook his head, his eyebrows furrowing. "No, I don't really know where that came from," He glanced at Steve as though his best friend was withholding that specific detail, "It just sort of happened."

"Maybe you just need to relax and let the rest of your memory come back on its own time," Steve reasoned, a wide smile sliding across his face carelessly, "It'll all be back before you know it."

"Hm. Hopefully I'll start remembering things more useful than the stupid fights you picked in junior high. It's a miracle those guys didn't kill you, you know." Bucky grumbled good-naturedly.

"I wonder why you're remembering things now." Peggy mused, resting her chin on the back of Steve's seat and watching Bucky thoughtfully.

"Maybe I'm your good luck charm." Steve suggested with a laugh, sparing Bucky an amused grin.

Bucky rolled his eyes, but couldn't help laughing along with his best friend. "You're a pretentious punk, Rogers."

* * *

"What are you doing?" Natasha asked, regretting the question as soon as it slipped through her lips.

Clint smiled as he looked up from the hideously shriveled tree that he had managed to locate at some point during their stay. Pizza the dog lounged nearby, watching his owner through curious, yet lazy eyes.

"Don't you do Christmas?" Clint inquired, returning his attention to the scraggly tree.

Natasha folded her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes. "I don't 'do' holidays."

"Well," Clint huffed, finally standing up and taking a step back to properly examine his handiwork, "There's a first time for everything."

"Can't we just focus on the case?" Natasha sighed, feeling her face redden.

She disliked the idea of holidays; holidays were for cookie-cutter families. Holidays were something that anyone without the perfect family grew up to loathe. Holidays were a reminder of her lacking childhood and the family that she would never know. Natasha actively avoided holidays.

"Too late," Clint replied cheerfully, "Pizza dog already got you a present."

Natasha shot the dog a dark look. Pizza the dog whined and placed his head between his paws as though he was perfectly aware of Natasha's anger. Clint just smiled at the pair and produced a small box that was poorly wrapped in cheesy Christmas wrapping paper.

"I didn't get you anything." Natasha stated, watching Clint carefully.

The blond just grinned and continued to hold out the gift until Natasha accepted it. If he was bothered by the fact that Natasha hadn't gotten him anything, he certainly did not show it. He seemed perfectly content just to watch Natasha open the present that 'Pizza dog' had gotten her.

She unwrapped the present reluctantly, still unsure about how to proceed. She had never spent Christmas with anyone before. She debated running out and trying to find a fitting present for Clint before opening whatever it was that he had gotten her, but decided against it. She would maintain her carefree disposition for the time being. Getting attached would not get her anywhere.

Once she had torn away the tacky wrapping paper, a jewelry box materialized. Natasha's eyes narrowed. She was not an expert on either Christmas or romance, but she had seen enough movies to know that jewelry was not a present that she wanted to receive. Women always seemed to melt when they opened a jewelry box, which men took as permission to become excessively possessive creatures. Natasha had no intentions of melting or being possessed.

"What is this?" She demanded, glaring at Clint as her fingers lingered on the lid of the box.

Clint laughed, exchanging amused looks with Pizza the dog before grinning at Natasha. "Just open it."

"I don't want to." Natasha admitted, feeling her face burn as she scowled down at the box.

"You don't trust me?" Clint teased, waggling his eyebrows.

Natasha watched him, waiting for any giving signs. "I trust you." She allowed at length.

"Then open the box. Please." Clint persisted.

Natasha let out an exasperated huff before removing the lid to the box. To her surprise, not a single piece of jewelry was waiting to greet her in the box. Instead, a small pen was laying there, humble and unimposing. She arched an eyebrow, feeling an intoxicating wave of relief rush over her.

"Thank you?" She forced herself to say, unable to keep the tone of confusion out of her voice.

Clint threw his head back laughing, drawing attention from Pizza the dog.

"Relax, I didn't just get you a pen to confuse you. It's a high-intelligence pen. Look at the side; it's got a small screen on it. It'll correct answers on your test, run spell checks on your words, and best of all, it can measure the heart rate and level of perspiration of whoever's holding it. It records the information too. That means - "

"If I can get someone to hold the pen when I'm interviewing them, I can tell if they're lying." Natasha concluded with a decisive head nod. Her lips twisted into a smile. She couldn't help it; she loved helpful technology.

Clint shrugged, a bashful smile now crossing his face. "I don't know, I was in D.C. when I saw it and I just thought that it might be something you like."

"Thank you." Natasha smiled, unsure of exactly how to express her gratitude. She conveniently decided to forget the small detail that Clint hadn't been to Washington D.C. in a number of months; he must have selected the pen before Natasha had even considered any romantic feelings that she might have had for the archer.

"Hm," Clint smiled, seemingly satisfied with her reaction, "well, Pizza dog says you're welcome. He also says that we should probably finish up the field files before Agent Carter kills us. I think one of them might require some pretty heavy trespassing."

* * *

"Are you sure that I'm not intruding? I really don't mind getting out of your hair if you want to spend the day with your family. I think Tony came home from his vacation early. He'd probably let me stay with him until the dorms opened up." Bruce reminded Maria on Christmas morning, running a hand through his mop of curls and making eye contact with his newest roommate uncomfortably.

Maria smiled and rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding? My mom loves you. You couldn't leave even if you wanted to. She's already got a ton of Christmas presents under the tree for you. Now we just have to wait for my parents to wake up before we can open presents."

Bruce smiled and nodded to himself. He and Maria had been sitting on the top of the staircase for at least a half an hour waiting for Maria's parents to wake up. Maria had woken him up at seven in the morning insisting that it was a tradition to wait and discuss the presents that might be waiting for them just below the stairs. He was happy to oblige, thrilled to have something resembling a normal holiday for what felt like the first time in decades.

"I really wish you would have told me that earlier. I didn't get your family very much; I didn't have much time." Bruce sighed, feeling a bit guilty for being such an imposition on the Hill family.

Maria waved off his regretful comment. "Oh, please, I know exactly what you did. You practically raised Tony's lab and ripped off almost every idea he's had in the past three years. That's right; I recognize Stark technology when I see it. My parents will love it. They're always excited to see what the Stark family comes out with."

"Are you two waiting to open presents?" Maria's dad's voice boomed from behind them.

Both Maria and Bruce whipped around to see Maria's dad standing behind them, his cheeks rosy and his eyes twinkling. Maria and Bruce smiled back immediately.

Mr. Hill was so unlike Bruce's father. He was kind, soft-spoken, constantly joking, and never seemed to be angry. Bruce couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. He wished that his home life was at least half as pleasant as Maria's.

"Of course; what took you so long? Can we please go downstairs now? Bruce has not stopped talking about how impatient he's getting." Maria beamed, winking at Bruce before focusing her attention on her smiling father.

Bruce smiled sheepishly as Mr. Hill cast him a warm smile.

"Yeah, Bruce is definitely on the demanding side," Mr. Hill agreed teasingly, "Wait for your mother to get her camera. You know that she likes to take pictures of you opening gifts."

Maria groaned. "Can't I get it for her?"

"Will you look at the presents?" Mr. Hill inquired, raising his eyebrows cynically.

"Probably." Bruce speculated with a small smile.

Maria looked from Bruce to her father before giving a loud sigh. Bruce, on the other hand, couldn't stop smiling. It was his first time being included in a family environment that felt, well, _pleasant_. There was no yelling, all of the arguing was playful and light-hearted, and from the look of it, Maria didn't look like she was worried about slipping up and saying the wrong thing at any given moment. Bruce never wanted to leave the Hill household.

"Alright, alright," Mr. Hill relented, hanging his head and laughing, "you can go downstairs. Don't unwrap anything, though. Your mother is going to kill me as it is."

Maria grinned and immediately bounded down the stairs. Bruce followed her hesitantly, not wanting to upset Mrs. Hill by disobeying her rules. Still, he figured that as long as Mr. Hill was smiling, he couldn't be in too much trouble.

"You can grab your stocking off of the fireplace. I hope you like chocolate; mom isn't used to buying candy for anyone but me, and I _love_ chocolate." Maria said, nodding towards two overstuffed stockings leaning against the fireplace before diverting her own attention to all of the presents that were not wrapped.

Bruce stared at the stocking in awe while Maria fluttered around her own presents eagerly. He had never gotten a stocking before, and had definitely never had so much thought put into a present of any kind. The stocking was filled with candy, bits and pieces of hardware that Mrs. Hill must have picked up when she said that she was running errands, and…

"What're these?" Bruce questioned inquisitively, holding up a bundle of purple fabric.

Maria approached him to get a better look, her head cocked to the side slightly. "I think they're shorts."

Bruce couldn't help but smile. "Purple shorts. Huh. Well, I guess that'll be a look."

* * *

**Hi guys! Sorry about the insane amount of time that it took for me to update; college is a lot of work and this was a fluffy chapter to struggle through. Lucky for you guys, though, this is where the plot picks up (if I can ever get myself to write faster than a snail crawls). Any feedback you have is so appreciated you don't know the ways. Maybe it'll even encourage me to write faster ;D Probably not, but at the very least, it will help shape the chapters to (eventually) come. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Tony Stark could feel all eyes on him on the first day back at S.H.I.E.L.D. High. He couldn't pretend that the news hadn't spread among the student body the moment his parents' deaths were published in the newspapers. He just wished that everyone - Pepper included - would stop looking at him as though he were a charity case.

"Oh, uh, hey, Tony," Bruce murmured awkwardly as Tony entered their dorm room in order to escape the crowds gathering around him.

Tony paused, taking a moment to examine his roommate. Bruce seemed occupied with homework, despite the fact that there had not been a single class session since the end of the winter break, and was acting as though the break had not happened at all. Tony quirked an eyebrow, but decided against making a comment on his roommate's apathetic attitude as he tossed his suitcase onto his bed.

"Hey, Banner. What the hell are you wearing? Are those _purple shorts_? Where did you even find purple shorts? It's the middle of fucking winter in New York." Tony questioned, hoping to divert the attention from himself in order to maintain the first normal conversation that he had had in weeks.

Bruce looked down at his shorts and smiled sheepishly. "Maria Hill's mom bought them for me."

"Maria Hill's mom…?" Tony's eyebrows furrowed. He didn't know where to begin in terms of questioning his roommate. As far as he knew, Bruce had spoken to Maria maybe five times throughout his entire life. "How...I don't...not to be...but..._why_?"

Bruce laughed at the eloquently worded question. "I ended up at her house for Christmas."

"Are you two…?" Tony waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

The billionaire would not have been disappointed to see Bruce finally make some progress in his pitiful love life. It would certainly do the poor mop-headed boy some good; he was always moping around the dorm room as though he was expecting something terrible to occur the moment he smiled.

Bruce shook his head hastily. "No; I wasn't exactly invited over for the holidays. I didn't have anywhere else to go. Everyone I knew was on vacation with their families."

Tony sighed and sat down across from Bruce, who was now staring at the ground determinedly.

"Your dad again?" Tony asked as gently as was possible.

"I was just having a bad night. You don't need to worry about it, Tony." Bruce murmured, busying himself with his homework once again.

Tony nodded slightly, watching Bruce carefully. "You know that you don't have to suffer through him, right? There are people you could call, places you could go...hey, I have an entire mansion to myself now. We could always leave this shithole and live a few miles down the road."

Bruce finally cracked a smile. "I think that's one of your worst ideas yet."

"It might be," Tony agreed, also smiling, "but it'd be a lot of fun."

"Hm. Well, as _fun_ as that sounds, I should probably get back to studying instead of daydreaming about living with my deranged roommate. I have a feeling that Selvig is going to give us a pop quiz the second we set foot in his classroom." Bruce groaned, nodding towards a large pile of astrophysics notes.

"Really? Huh. Ah, fuck it, I think I'll just fail. I don't have time to study. I'm already running late to meet Pepper. Any chance that you'd want to come to dinner with us?" Tony asked, grabbing his coat off of the door and turning to cast his roommate an inquisitive glance.

Bruce rolled his eyes, not looking up from his homework. "Do I want to be a third-wheel on a fancy dinner date? Hmm. Tempting, Stark, but I think I'll pass this time. Tell Pepper I said hi."

"Alright, buddy, take it easy." Tony grinned, yanking open the door and stepping out.

Almost immediately he seemed to think better of it and stepped inside the dorm room once more.

"Hey, Bruce?"

"Mm?"

"Thanks for being cool about...well, you know."

"Mmm." Bruce nodded and waved his hand in Tony's direction, still not looking up from his homework.

"Last call to extort a free dinner out of me." The billionaire reminded his roommate as he went to step out of the door once more.

Bruce rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Get out of here. Pepper is going to kill you if you show up any later."

"It's so nice to be back." Tony chuckled, shutting the door and walking down the long hallway towards the girls' dorm.

* * *

"So, how are you and Thor? Did you have a nice break together? You were both smiling pretty wide when you got here." Maria Hill questioned as the girls hung around the girls' dorm lounge, each of them excitedly recalling details from their vacations.

Jane blushed and looked at the ground, smiling to herself slightly. Darcy, on the other hand, snorted and rolled her eyes.

"They were _awful_," Darcy complained, "when they weren't gazing lovingly into each others' eyes, they were always talking about the nine realms. Honestly, if I have to hear the word 'Asgard' one more time I might throw up."

"Oh, stop. You and Loki were talking about Norse mythology the entire time! You know, I think that you guys went on more dates than Thor and I did." Jane countered with a knowing smile.

Darcy scowled. "We were not going on _dates_, we were trying to escape you two. You should have seen them, Maria. They were unbearable. I really thought that they were going to escape and elope while we weren't looking."

"I think you might be exaggerating." Jane rolled her eyes.

"I don't know, I think I might believe her," Maria commented, partially for the sake of maintaining the interesting banter, "But I think I might also believe you about Darcy and Loki. Do you think Loki is the romantic type? Has he made any grand gestures yet, Darce?"

"Gross. I didn't skip detention to hear the word Loki and romance used in the same sentence." Darcy murmured, wrinkling her nose.

Maria shrugged with a small smirk. "I don't know; Pepper went out with him. I think that new girl, Sarah Seacrest, has been talking about him, too. Apparently some people think about Loki and romance. Better move fast before someone else gets your boy."

Darcy's nose managed to wrinkle itself even more. She shook her head quickly then looked around the room for some type of distraction, desperate to change the subject. It was bad enough listening to Jane torment her about her friendship with Loki. Having Maria present to participate was borderline torture.

"Why don't you tell us about your break? Did anything interesting happen?" Darcy inquired loudly, hoping that her friends would allow her to change the subject instead of tormenting her further.

Maria and Jane smiled at each other knowingly before allowing the topic to shift.

"You know, actually, the weirdest thing did happen. Bruce Banner stayed at my house for Christmas. I'm pretty sure my mom wants to adopt him." Maria stated with a small smile.

Darcy and Jane both gawked, shocked that their friend had waited so long to tell them such an important piece of news. It wasn't that they were particularly surprised by Maria's decision to allow one of their classmates to stay at her house over the break - Maria was always looking out for the welfare of the student body - both Jane and Darcy were more interested to hear how Bruce wound up at their friend's door.

"Why was Bruce at your house? He told me that he was planning on spending the holidays with his family. I didn't even know that you two were close." Jane commented, looking thoroughly confused.

Maria's face reddened. She quickly realized that it would be very difficult to explain Bruce's presence without revealing the secret that she had sworn never to tell. She looked from Jane and Darcy, both of whom were expecting an answer, before quickly concocting an explanation.

"Yeah, it was weird; I definitely wasn't expecting him. He just showed up one night and said something about getting into a fight with his dad. I don't think I was really his first choice. He told me that he only came over because I was the only one home for the break." She explained easily.

Darcy quirked an inquisitive eyebrow. "And he stayed with you for the rest of the break?"

"He wasn't really desperate to get home and my parents liked having the extra company. It worked out for everyone." Maria replied simply.

"Are you two...you know…" Jane prodded cautiously.

Maria shook her head immediately. "It_ is_ possible for you to spend a vacation with someone without falling deeply in love, you know."

"I agree." Darcy smirked triumphantly.

Jane rolled her eyes at her friends. "You guys could do a lot worse than Loki and Bruce, you know."

Darcy snorted while Maria shrugged sheepishly.

"Alright, alright, I'm not going to bother you. I should probably get to studying anyway," Jane smiled, standing up and stretching, "just remember: if you don't let them know how you feel, someone else might."

* * *

"I think your waist has gotten even smaller since I last saw you. Please tell me that you have not been dieting to look like a walking Dorito." Natasha Romanoff teased, leaning in the doorway of Steve Rogers' dorm room.

The blond turned to cast Natasha a goofy smile while Sam Wilson guffawed on the other side of the room. Steve hadn't expected to see Natasha on his first day back at S.H.I.E.L.D. He had assumed that she would still be on her top-secret field training excursion with Barton. He certainly hadn't prepared himself for the onslaught of questions he knew he was about to receive.

"Hey Nat," He chuckled, setting down the clothes he had been unpacking, "Should I even ask you how your break was, or will a SWAT team descend and take me away to some remote location to keep me quiet?"

Natasha rolled her eyes and took a seat at Steve's desk chair. "It was alright. Kind of boring, actually. I didn't even get to use any of my new sparring moves."

"Not even on Clint?" Steve teased with a grin.

"He wouldn't let me." Natasha answered with a smile.

"I can't blame him," Sam commented from across the room, "None of us have forgotten that time you 'accidentally' broke Quill's hand over the last slice of pumpkin bread last October."

Natasha rolled her eyes and scowled in Sam's direction. "It really was an accident, you know. He came up from behind me and reached over my shoulder. What was I supposed to do? He could have been attacking me."

Sam snorted loudly. "Who on this Earth would be stupid enough to attack you?"

"You never know," Natasha shrugged, smiling reluctantly, "Do I even want to know what you did over break, Sam?"

"I think you might; it was great. Now, I don't want you to be jealous, but I got Tabby Baker to go to the movies with me -"

Steve let out a huff of laughter from across the room. "After getting turned down about ten times."

"Rogers, your jealousy is showing," Sam bit back, smirking slightly before returning his attention to Natasha, "_Anyway_, I had a hot date with Tabby, my mom got me twelve pounds of candy because she didn't really know what else to buy, and my buddy Riley just turned twenty-one, so -"

"And that's where the stories get inappropriate," Steve interrupted with an apologetic smile, "Sam, you should really learn to read the room, buddy."

"I think you just don't want Natasha to see you blush." Sam countered with a knowing grin.

Steve glowered at Sam, but didn't object as his face began to heat up. He could not deny that his face tended to redden while hearing the ridiculous stories that Sam effortlessly concocted. He did not particularly relish the idea of going through that experience while in the same room as Natasha. At least, not on his first day back at S.H.I.E.L.D. He needed time to readjust to his life at school.

"Aw, don't pick on Steve. If he's sat through your stories once, he's already suffered enough. Why don't you tell us about your break, Steve? Did you and Bucky proclaim your undying love for each other yet?" Natasha teased, smiling at Steve playfully.

Steve rolled his eyes. "No, Nat; I'm dating _Peggy_, remember? She, uh, she actually went out with us on Christmas."

"Wow," Natasha remarked, raising her eyebrows in surprise, "You let someone else in on your little tradition? How did Bucky take the news?"

"He likes her. I think." Steve answered, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. "They get along pretty well. Actually, Bucky started to remember stuff while we were driving. Maybe Peggy's a good luck charm."

Natasha wrinkled her nose. "I guess that means I'm going to start seeing a lot more of her, doesn't it?"

Steve's mouth curved upwards slightly. "She really isn't that bad, you know. You guys just...ah...you should spend more time together. Maybe have a sleepover or something. I'm sure she would, uh, love to hang out with you."

"You are the worst liar," Natasha proclaimed, unable to bite back a smile, "But you're also the only person at this school worth talking to, so I guess I can at least _try_ to like your girlfriend. I'll text her and ask if she wants to get lunch this weekend."

"Thanks." Steve said, smiling in relief.

He had been worried about Natasha and Peggy's nonexistent friendship. He knew it was unrealistic to expect both of the girls to immediately become friends simply because they were key parts of his life, but he had wished for it all the same.

"Can I come too?" Sam asked with a wide smile.

"No." Steve and Natasha answered in unison.

* * *

"Um, yeah, sorry for interrupting, professor. They want Clint Barton in the office." Maria felt her face redden as she interrupted what was clearly an important history lecture.

Clint, on the other hand, looked absolutely thrilled to escape. He smirked at Rhodey, who appeared to be half-asleep at his desk, and bounded towards the door eagerly. Maria spared Bruce Banner, who was also suffering through the lecture, a small smile before reluctantly following the assassin in training out of the room.

"So, what're you breaking me out for? Does Stark want a crash test dummy again? Is Nat just using you to get me out of class? Damn, do you think I could just get back to my room and nap?" Clint rambled as they walked down the hall, completely ignoring the fact that Maria was shepherding him in the direction of Nick Fury's office.

"Actually, I think you're in trouble." Maria replied, opening the door to the office area and gesturing for Clint to enter.

"Trouble? What for? We've only been back for a day. No one...uh...no one went in my room, did they?" He questioned, scratching the back of his head nervously.

Maria cocked an eyebrow. "No_ooo_...should they have?"

Clint shook his head hastily. "I mean, I don't, it's not like, hey, look, sandwiches."

"That's Mr. Coulson's lunch." Maria remarked, folding her arms across her chest as Clint eyed the sandwich lying on the counter.

"Could you get me a sandwich like this one?" Clint inquired, gesturing towards the sandwich, still eying it hungrily.

Maria rolled her eyes. "I think Mr. Fury is waiting for you."

Clint glanced in the direction of Nick Fury's office and sighed. He was not looking forward to hearing what he was in trouble for. He had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the large dog residing in his room. Rhodey - his whiny roommate - had probably told on him. Clint mentally reminded himself to slip laxatives in Rhodey's ice cream after dinner.

"I want a sandwich when I get out of there." He grumbled, reluctantly shuffling in the direction of Fury's office.

"That probably won't happen." Maria responded, sliding into her usual seat at the front of the office.

Clint sighed and hung his head as he raised a fist to knock on Fury's door. As it turned out, there was no need to even knock.

"Come in, Mr. Barton." Fury's deep voice growled from behind the door.

"How'd you know it was me?" Clint questioned, stepping into the room and taking his usual seat in front of Fury's desk.

Fury cracked a smile. "Lucky guess. Any idea why you're here?"

Clint shrugged, not wanting to give himself away. There was still a chance - no matter how small - that Fury did not know about Pizza the dog. He squirmed in his seat slightly, wondering whether or not he could get Natasha to house the dog until he was out of trouble. Although, her roommate, Sif, would likely have more than a few objections to the dog. He briefly wondered if there were any dogs on Asgard. Hopefully eating dogs was not an Asgardian tradition.

Fury leaned across his desk, the smile disappearing from his face entirely. That was not a good sign. Clint tried his best not to act at all concerned. He failed miserably.

"Are you aware that trespassing is illegal in almost _every single_ country, Hungary included?" Fury growled, his face extorting into an extremely angry expression.

Clint sat back in his chair and let out a small sigh. Fury didn't know about Pizza the dog. He had just heard about the slightly illegal method that he and Natasha had used to attain files that Agent Carter and Agent Rumlow had asked for. He wasn't in nearly as much trouble as he had originally thought.

"Oh, yeah, well, we didn't really know what else to do. Did you already call Nat down? She can probably explain it better than I can." Clint replied, glancing around the office for any type of indication that his girlfriend had already been in the office.

"No; she had the good sense to avoid looking directly at the security cameras," Fury snapped, "They've only got a full shot of you. We just got the call this morning. You're facing serious charges, Barton."

Clint sat up slightly. He had never faced _serious_ charges before. He had gotten lectured about the destruction of property a number of times - he could hardly remember the exact amount of times, as a matter of fact - but Fury had always just yelled at him for a short period of time before running out of insults and sending him back to class. Clint shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Uh, so, what does that mean?" He asked nervously.

Fury's mouth curved just slightly. It seemed that the dean was thrilled to have finally gotten Clint Barton to pay attention. Clint was not so thrilled. He was beginning to suspect that getting out of an international trespassing charge might not be as easy as convincing Fury that the gym equipment broke because it was defective.

"All of the school's lawyers are tied up in a project right now - the twins have been acting up again - so your best bet is to wait until they can defend you. You don't want to risk going to an international prison. We can probably push your court date back a few months, but…" The dean trailed off, staring down at his calendar dismally.

"But what?" Clint demanded, not feeling at all comforted by Fury's solution.

"That would interfere with your scheduled graduation date." Fury answered promptly.

Clint's eyes widened. "What? No! You can't do that! I have to graduate this year - I'm a senior! I can't wake up at six in the morning for another year! I'm supposed to go, Nat and I were gonna…"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Barton," Fury interrupted, although he was very clearly _not_ sorry, "maybe next year."

* * *

"How did you fare, Thor?" Loki inquired, leaning over his brother's desk to get a better look at the exam score that Thor had received. The lankier boy had received a perfect score - something he fully intended to brag about once he saw his brother's lesser score.

Thor groaned and handed his test to Loki. He shook his head in disappointment. Loki arched an eyebrow, but managed to tear his eyes away from his brother long enough to observe the score written on the top right corner of the collection of papers. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline when he did.

"How have you managed to earn a score this low?" Loki asked, flipping through the pages to see if Thor had exerted any effort at all, "You are aware that this number is out of one-hundred, are you not?"

"Father will banish me." Thor mumbled glumly.

It was no secret that Thor was doing poorly in all of his classes, but this was English, after all. They both spoke it better than the large majority of the Midgardians. Loki could not believe that his brother could possibly misunderstand the meanings of "How to Kill a Mockingbird". The oaf had answered as though the book had actually regarded the slaughter of a simple mockingbird. Loki rolled his eyes.

"No, he will not. Odin does not value wisdom the way mother does. It is far more likely that you will be teased endlessly once Sif hears of your stupidity. Now, why have you circled this answer? You must know that Boo Radley is not a ghost." Loki remarked, gesturing to the paper and looking at Thor as though he were the greatest idiot in all of the nine realms.

Thor's eyes widened as he snatched the exam from Loki once more. "Were we not supposed to identify the incorrect answer?"

"Why would we identify the _incorrect_ answer? The professor clearly indicated that we were to circle the _correct_ answers!" Loki replied, his voice dripping with exasperation.

"When was this settled?" Thor demanded indignantly.

"Immediately before the test!" Loki responded, looking around to see if anyone else was witnessing the absurd conversation that he was being forced to have.

Thor paused for a moment before looking just as outraged as Loki felt. "I was late for the exam! I had stopped to assist Jane Foster with a science experiment!"

Loki folded his arms across his chest, looking thoughtful. "Perhaps you should speak to the professor about your grade. She might reverse it upon hearing of your misfortune. Meanwhile, I must leave now. It is lunch time and I am rather curious about the meatloaf that Darcy has been speaking of."

Thor nodded, staring down at his exam sadly. "Perhaps there will be meatloaf once I am able to return to the cafeteria."

Loki smiled slightly. "I will save you a plate."

"Thank you, Loki." Thor said, returning the smile before standing up and approaching the teacher, looking extremely nervous as he did so.

Loki collected his own belongings and exited the classroom, relieved that he was not in Thor's position. He thoroughly disliked the idea of bartering for his grades. It was much easier to prove that he was more intelligent than the Midgardians the first time around.

All his classes were going exceptionally well, as a matter of fact. He had friends in nearly every subject; he was excelling in English, triumphing in history, shattering minds in astronomy, and best of all, he was performing well enough to astonish even Professor Schmidt in his theory of magic course. It seemed that he would not have to lift a finger in order to graduate in just a few months' time. Midgardian educations were incredibly ludacris.

* * *

"Tony, why weren't you in economics today? You know that Professor Bernanke always targets me when you're gone." Pepper whined, pressing her phone to her ear in order to hear her boyfriend's lame excuses for what felt like the millionth time since winter break had ended.

"Sorry Pep," Tony's voice was muffled, as though he had something - likely a pen or some type of screw - in his mouth, "Had to go to work again. I don't know how my dad did it. This company is a mess. Did you know that Obe hasn't brought an auditor into the office in years? Now the government is on my ass about some bank accounts that I've never even heard of. I had to learn accounting last night. I'm still not really sure what the upsides of having a LIFO system is."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "You could just appoint a new CEO, you know. Owning the company doesn't mean that you have to micromanage."

"Good point," Tony agreed distractedly, "You're hired. When can you start?"

Pepper laughed and shook her head. "I didn't mean me, Tony. Why don't you let Obe take over? He worked with your dad for years; he probably knows more about the company than you do. I doubt you'd have to talk him into it."

"I don't know, I feel like I should at least try to run it for a little while. This is what I'm going to be doing once I graduate; I might as well learn the ropes now. So, what did I miss in econ? Did you guys have another rousing debate on whether or not the Federal Reserve should raise interest rates? What is it with that guy and the Federal Reserve, anyway? I just want to learn the principles, not how to manipulate the entire economy." Tony mused.

"No, we just analyzed a few supply and demand curves and calculated equilibrium. We have a test on Wednesday. You should really study. I can come over and give you the notes tonight." Pepper offered.

"Sounds like a square deal. I should be done by, uh, maybe ten? Meet me at the library? I'll bring pizza." Tony offered quickly, sounding as though he wanted nothing more than to end the conversation in order to get back to work.

Pepper sighed as she pushed through the doors of the administration office. "That's past curfew, Tony. We can go over notes tomorrow. Don't argue," She added as Tony began to voice a complaint, "I don't have time to have this debate right now. I have a meeting with Mr. Coulson to get to. Please try to eat something before ten o'clock tonight."

"I'll have JARVIS set an alarm for dinner." Tony sighed.

Pepper smiled to herself. "There you go. Alright, I have to go. I'll call you tonight to make sure that Obe isn't giving you too much work. I'll come down there if I have to."

"You say that like it's a punishment." Tony chuckled.

"Goodbye Tony," Pepper said, unable to bite back a smile.

"I'll see you tonight, Potts." The genius responded, hanging up his phone before Pepper could remind him of the alternative plans that she had already laid out. She decided it was best to just ignore that minor detail.

Slipping her phone into her pocket, Pepper ventured down the narrow hallway of the administrator's office until she found herself face-to-face with Phil Coulson's door. She knocked before promptly entering, not particularly concerned about interrupting anything. Being student body president meant that she got to spend a lot of time with the vice president. Spending such a large amount of time with Coulson meant that she knew that she would never be interrupting much; he was usually either reading old comic books from the 40's or talking to his long-distance cellist girlfriend.

"Ah, Miss Potts." Coulson greeted her with a small smile.

"You can call me Pepper, you know. I'm sorry I'm late; I was trying to talk Tony into showing up for class today." Pepper laughed, plopping in the chair across from Coulson's desk, gearing up for yet another hour-long discussion about ground rules for school dances and budgeting for the equipment that students - namely, Clint Barton - always seemed to be breaking.

Coulson nodded, glancing at his computer before meeting Pepper's eyes once more. "He should be paying more attention to his attendance. Fury won't be happy when he sees these numbers."

"Well, you can only do so much when it comes to Tony," Pepper reminded him with a small shrug and a smile, "Anyway, what am I here for today? Did Natasha Romanoff assault another student?"

"Uh, no, actually, this is about you." Coulson replied, looking thoroughly uncomfortable.

Pepper quirked an eyebrow, her mind racing with potential subjects. She had gotten a pretty bad grade on her last management test, but only because the essay question had been completely sexist and she had refused to answer it on principle. Even so, she was still maintaining her 4.0 GPA while performing each of her duties as class president as well as anyone else in the grade could.

She supposed it could be about her new relationship with Tony. Maybe Coulson thought that she would spend less time working for the school now that she was dating Tony. Pepper rolled her eyes at the very idea. Tony had always been time consuming. Dating him certainly would not change that.

"About me?" She finally managed to ask, unable to think of a single thing that she could be held accountable for.

Coulson nodded grimly. "There's ah, there's some money missing from the treasury."

"Oh no." Pepper murmured, suddenly understanding the problem.

She had mapped out the budget so carefully. Every single dollar had been an absolute necessity; as it was, prom was going to be relatively simple due to the lack of funds. She could not imagine how she would be able to accomplish anything if the budget was any smaller.

"And, well, no one has access to the bank account but you…" Coulson trailed off, looking as though he would rather be literally anywhere else on the planet, "Pepper, I'm sorry, but until we can run a thorough investigation, we're going to have to suspend your presidential privileges."

* * *

**Hey guys! I know that it was a super long wait for a chapter that wasn't super lengthy, but you can blame my professors and their exams for that. The good news is, I've had about half of a week to write now that the tests have temporarily stopped. That means that I've had entirely too much time to spend on this fic. I'm already at chapter eleven, I think! I'm still debating whether or not I should keep the posts weekly...I want to give you all time for feedback that might influence things, but I also want to get to the end before next year. Let me know your feelings on that, as well as your feelings on this chapter in general! :D**

**ALSO, winter break is approaching at a startling rate, which means that I'm gonna be opening up commissions once again. It's a pretty exciting time to be alive. For more info on that, you can either message me or wait until I make a post about it on my tumblr (lifeastoldbygingerr). **

**Sorry about the annoying notes at the end. I hope you're enjoying the story thus far ~**


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